Busy night, busy day

Yesterday was an interesting day. We had to get up quite early for orientation, which took place at this little community center place called Merkaz Hagmashimim, where we were told about our volunteering places and stuff. We were also given bus passes to get around Jerusalem. Itzik recommended we go from the apartments to our volunteering places to make sure we know how to get there. I'm working at Open House, a gay rights organization. The only other person working there is Jacob, one of my roommates, so he and I headed off there together.

After waiting about half an hour for the right bus to come, we got to the area and followed Itzik's instructions to find the place. After that, we headed back...or at least that was the plan. Jacob decided to walk all the way back to the apartment, which I could not do. So it was up to me to find a bus stop on the other side of the road to go back to the apartment.

Unfortunately, the roads in that area are curved and angled wierdly, and there was no bus stop on the other side of the road. So, I was kind of lost. I walked around a bit, trying to find a bus going the right way, and had no luck. By that time I was pretty tired and just wanted to get out of this area, so I hopped on the same bus that took me there, knowing it was going in the wrong direction. I decided to see where it went and go from there.

It brought me to Mount Scopus, and Hebrew University. I kind of wanted to check out the campus some more, but I couldn't really find an entrance and my feet were starting to hurt. During this time, one of the Israeli college students commented on my Street Fighter t-shirt, which was cool. Anyway, I decided the only way I could get back to the apartment in one piece was to take a cab, and there were indeed a few in the area. I hopped in one and hoped for the best. Only trouble was, I didn't have many sheqels; certainly not enough to get all the way back to the apartment. I doubted I had enough to get anywhere, but I figured the best in-between point was Ben Yehuda street. It was somewhere between Mount Scopus and the apartment, and I knew I could find an ATM and another cab there, so I asked the first cab I saw what it would cost to get there, explaining I didn't have a lot. He was cool with it, so I payed a good price for a cab to Ben Yehuda.

Once there, I decided to look around a bit. I hadn't been there yet this trip, and I knew it was a cool place. Music playing everywhere, people speaking English, and a lot of shops and restaurants. After a little bit of getting lost, I came upon one of the few non-historical places I knew I wanted to come back to from my last trip to Israel: the crepe place. Right next to it was a sushi restaurant, of all places. So my dinner was set. After I ate, I decided to sit around a bit and absorb the atmosphere. After that, I caught a cab back to the apartment. It was a pretty crazy evening.

After getting back, I wasn't quite ready for bed. So I decided to do some stuff online for a while, until I was ready to go to bed. My apartment mates, who went to Ben Yehuda after I did, staggered back at various times. The first back was Charlie, who broke off from the main group with his girlfriend (also on the trip) and randomly stumbled on a very interesting place. It was a free expression, poetry circly bar place. They had musical instruments for anyone to play, and people just talked and played music. He's going to take me there on Sunday night.

We talked for a while after he got back, and we went on facebook. It was at that time he told me he was interested in cloud computing, which I thought was cool. I showed him Dad's book and website and said they should talk some time. Later on, the others came back, all drunk. I decided to go to bed, but first I wanted to take a shower.

Turns out that wasn't the best idea. The bathroom uses an incredibly archaic lock system, with a big key you have to turn to get the door locked and unlocked from inside. Because it's an old key and lock, it's not very straightforward. You can probably see where this is going: I was stuck in the bathroom for over an hour until Charlie came back and explained to me how to use the lock. It wasn't fun. After that fiasco, I actually showered and went to bed.

Needless to say, after last night I slept a lot. I woke up around 1:30 and went with Charlie, his girlfriend, Max, and another girl to a little food market. We got some excellent breads, fruits, and vegetables for the apartment and for dinner tonight. But it looks like that dinner's actually not going to happen; the others just went to visit the Western Wall, and I got a call from Charlie a few minutes ago saying they're going to eat at the Merkaz place and have the other dinner tomorrow night. I don't remember how to get to that place, so hopefully I'll find somebody to follow.