tel aviv, not a bad place to wait

There was a bit of confusion regarding today with my extended family, who are over from the states.  They emailed last night that today would be good to meet, but I didn't respond in time to set definite plans.  Still, after ulpan I headed in to Tel Aviv in hopes of hearing from them this afternoon.


I ended up at a nice cafe where over a few hours I plowed through most of my book.  Getting restless, I agreed to meet up with Xan for some volleyball.  We warmed up against the older couple, and then two guys came that were pretty good, they attacked almost every play which means a lot more digs, still not much of a defensive game.


Afterwards, we did day 1 again of the 100 push up challenge, or as much as we could.  Passed on the lunges to the water.  Very sore at the moment.


I got through to my family, and heard they were tied up until 11, so I went for dinner with Xan and Katie at their place, talked for a while, and then headed across the street to the Hilton to read in the lobby and chatted with a group of Canadians visiting.

After meeting up and catching up, I caught a sherut on Dizengoff to Tachanah Mercazit.  The last sherut had no one in it for Ramla / Lod.  After a while some men asked me if I would be willing to cover the other seats. I declined, not in a rush I said.  Don't you want to get home to your wife, don't you have to get up in the morning they asked me, for work.  Nope I said, and went back to standing under the street light reading.  They were getting really frustrated, well we do they said.  Sorry I said, back to reading.

The driver even came over to try and coax me into splitting the cost between the four of us for the entire sherut.  Nope, I said.  I was suckered into that once before.  Let the person who needs to get home so badly pay - anyway, they could get a taxi for less between them for what they were paying, but I chose not to share this information.

I explained the sherut at this hour cost 14 shekels, and that is what I would pay.  I had good light to read, was in no rush to go home, and didn't mind waiting.

Eventually, we got in, I passed up my 14 shekels in exact change so that there would be no confusion, they all paid the premium to go home (about 30-40 shekels a person), and we left.  Only downside was that he went to Lod first, which annoyed two of the other people, who had paid extra.  Technically, they don't have to pay anything extra to get the driver to go.  By law, the sherut has to leave after a certain amount of time - filled or not filled, but I guess that law isn't really enforced.

Kinneret tomorrow, and then not sure about Shabbat plans.

Oh - book I am reading is Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea