On the first day of orientation I saw two apartments. One was on the ground floor, so I pretty much ruled that out. Two American girls were moving out and there were two Aussie guys staying. The rental period was only for two months with the possibility of extending. One of the girls was actually taking the stove and the guys were way too much of partiers for my taste. After that I saw a place where a 40 year-old Russian woman was the roommate staying (a 20-something was moving out to study in Jerusalem). She seemed nice, but we would have had nothing in common and it would have been a pretty lonely experience. I had trouble finding the bus back to Yafo because apparently the 25 had stopped running. After a full day of apartment hunting, I was beginning to feel nauseous. I had purchased a single-serving of hummus, but had no way of eating it. I tried using the cereal bar I had in my bag, but that was gross and the bar fell apart. Finally I wound up going into a 24-hour market and picking up a bag of potato chips, which was disgusting, but potato chips only have three ingredients (potatoes, oil and salt), so I knew that they would be safe for me. I ate the hummus and threw out the rest of the disgusting chips as I got onto the number 18 bus.
Day two I saw another apartment, which I really liked. The guy was kind of quiet, but the place was awesome. The kitchen had everything I could want, there was air conditioning and internet. Later on, I was sitting on a bench reading from my Kindle and a woman started talking to me in Hebrew. I smiled and said (in English) that I didn’t understand Hebrew. She was older, walking with a nurse/aid, and wanted to know how the Kindle didn’t hurt my eyes. She wound up to be American; her children live in New Jersey. Those first few nights, I slept on the roof of Sam’s apartment (there are mattresses up there). I really only lasted two or three nights because the squeaking noises from the bats finally drove me nuts. I was afraid they were going to attack me or something, so I started sleeping inside on the couch, which is leather and really sticky from the heat.
On Thursday I saw another apartment near Dizzengoff center, which is a very central location. The roommates seemed like they could be cool people, but there was no a/c or washer, it was on a busy street and they had a dog. That night I met Sam and her roommate, Yonni, at pushpeshuk, a nighttime street festival in Yafo. There’s a market (shuk – hence the name) and lots of live music. I had a “fruit shake” for dinner and watched the bands perform. Sam went out, so Yonni and I walked back to the apartment and he made shakshuka, which is essentially scrambled eggs with veggies and tomato sauce. We went up to the roof to eat it and the shakshuka fell off the edge of the roof! It was hilarious and convenient because I wasn’t that hungry and he was adamant about feeding me.
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