Lucy and Ethel go to Haifa

Oh. my. goodness. Never have I put SO much effort into seeing a movie. But it was TOTALLY worth it. So here, the story:Cristen and I wander out of the Kibbutz (I still haven't actually figured out which end is up yet here ... from what I can tell, it's a GIANT circle ... ) and cross Route 4 (roughly equivilent to Route 7 near Tyson's Corner ... but with a cross walk ...

sort of ... and catch the Sherut to Haifa. Except that APPARENTLY these "taxis" don't take you wherever you ask. They're more like mini buses ... so he dumps us out at the main bus terminal and leaves us to fend for ourselves. We go through security basically as serious as you do a most minor airports. EVERYTHING is in Hebrew. EVERYTHING. And everyone said (in perfect English) that they don't speak Hebrew (ummm ... Grand Kanyon sounds THE SAME IN BOTH LANGUAGES). Finally, we find a very nice bus ticket man who tells us that we want bus 125 which leaves platform 5 in 20 minutes and costs 5.90 NIS. We wait MORE THAN 30 minutes and get on the bus. The very nice bus driver tells us when to get off ... and we've made it (after going through security and bag check)! Cristen and I have traveled 1/2 way across the globe to end up at the largest shopping mall in Israel. To see a movie in English. And eat in the food court. Oy vey (the bus was a big enough adventure for me today ... I wasn't ready to tackle the menu that was all in Hebrew ... I told Cristen that if she could figure out how to order that she was more than welcome to go to one of the cafe's. If not, it was the food court for us! We went to the food court).

We found a very nice family who had just immigrated to Israel from England who were watching Harry Potter as well (BTW, they assign seats, there are no previews, only commercials, and there is an intermission!).

There are some pictures of Haifa farther below. It's a REALLY cool city and I can't wait to go back (when I have more energy!) and explore! It's built into the side of the mountain, so all the streets are really windy. The mountain in question is Mount Carmel (which is where Elijah hid out!) It's also the center for the Bah'ai faith and there are some REALLY pretty gardens. There's also a subway (the only one in Israel) which takes you up the mountain (a good decision because it is a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way up).

Cristen and I, after dinner at the mall, walked outside to try to catch the bus back to the terminal so we could catch a sherut ... but the bus we needed was across the street ... and we couldn't get there. So Cristen and I opted for a cab. It was a little pricy (roughly $30) but it was worth it because we didn't have to try and hail a sherut or whatever. We get back the the kibbutz to find some of the people who did the entire season (all 6 weeks) grilling out (and to find that our roommates went out, locked the door, and took the key with them. SOOOOO not happy). But we hung out for a while (here's a picture of Jillian dancing), I realized that I was both homesick and tired and sat on our front stoop until the roomies came back.

Well, it's off to bed for me because I have a full day of relaxing at the beach ahead of me (and walking around Akko ... and watching the sun set over the Mediterranean ...)