חשככש

The title of this was an attempt to write "Jaffa" but I guess the Hebrew setting was on. I don't think those are the right letters, but those are the keys. Stace and I are staying in Tel Aviv with a couple named Arie and Rena Ouriel. Arie used to work for secret services for the Israeli Govt and has MILLIONS of stories and knows the answer to just about every question we could think of. Not to mention that he knows 13 languages--Including Dutch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we went to a market in Tel Aviv, which is similar to most markets you find in the world. Lots of people and booths with all sorts of trinkets. We didn't buy anything today, though. We want to see what options we have first. We did lose Yael and Danielle and ended up sitting around waiting for them to find us, but it was at a cafe with really good cold drinks, so it was okay.

Then we went to Jaffa with Arie as our personal tour guide. He speaks flawless English--British-style. Jaffa is one of the oldest cities in history. It is also the location of Andromeda's Rock. I was tempted to tie myself to it to see if some handsome man would sweep down to take me up on his winged stallion. I've seen pleanty around that I would volunteer to fill that roll. Man, there are beautiful people bred in the country. Arie taught us about the origins of balconies. Little did yall know that balconies originated in Israel. The women were not allowed to go onto the streets and be seen by others, so they built balconies with shutters so that they could peek out onto the streets. I guess the Spanish were the first ones to start fighting and saw these balconies and then Europe started building them too. That's why I sit on ours--I don't want to be seen, yet I want to be a peeping tom.

Another strange fact--There are these half windows on some of the old buildings, and the average person wouldn't know why they are only half. Well "it's very simple" according to Arie. When a building was destroyed and only three walls remained, instead of rebuilding the house to its original form, they would just close off the house by building the remaining wall. It was cheaper. So if half a wall stood and a window was cut in half, they wouldn't extend the wall to complete the window, they just started the wall in the middle of the window. It makes for pie-shaped windows instead of semi-circles.

Also, some muslim women do not dress down for swimming--they wear the black, long-sleeved, floor-lengthed dresses!!!! In the ocean. Heavy. Full of sand. Those are my thoughts about it.

The pictures in here:

-We watched an acrobat couple perform on the streets. We couldn't understand a word they said until they started lip-syncing and flipping around a trapeeze (however you spell it) to "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

-Stacy and I in front of the ocean veiw of Jaffa. That's the Mediterranean.

-Stace and I in the middle of the old Jaffa port city right on the coast. Donkeys used to walk here. And people, I guess. Now we see stray cats and dogs instead. There weren't very many people out because this was Friday night and everyone was already going home for Shabbat. Tomorrow is our Sabbath, too. Church starts at 10 at the BYU Center in Jerusalem.

We love yall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!