Well, I'm starting to get used to this place. I'm even developing some kind of a routine.

I try to go to the gym every day after class, if it's not too late.

The classes themselves are very interesting. I've just decided to drop one (which is very common here, but I've never done it before, so it's been a hard decision for me to make), but I've joined another.

The problem is, it seems that the classes are either too easy or too difficult, and I haven't found the golden path. Right now I'm sticking with too difficult, but I must admit I'm scared. Anyway, just in case you're wondering, here are the courses I'm taking:

1. Modern Drama (it's interesting, but it's easy. It's undergraduate work)
2. Creative Writing (that's my bonus course. It took me some effort, but I managed to convince them to let me take the intermediate level, and so far I'm doing fine and I'm loving every minute of it)
3. Shakespeare seminar (haven't had it yet because it's on a Monday, but it's supposed to be interesting and difficult)
4. American Memory seminar (very very interesting, but again, quite difficult)

I hope I won't have to drop anything.

What else can I say? I think I'm having the full college experience: I live in the dorms, go to dining halls to eat, and tomorrow (Saturday), I'm going to wake up before 6 AM to stand in line for tickets for the upcoming basketball games (this school has one of the best teams in the country).

I find it refreshing to see how proud people are in their universities. Everybody's constantly wearing UNC shirts to any occasion here. I'm going to get myself a shirt too. It's a must.

Yesterday I finally went to a local bar with some of the international students here. It was nice, but I have to admit I am bothered a little by the fact that everybody's younger than I am.

Now a little about the weather. It has been quite warm for winter so far, but that's going to change over the weekend. It might even snow.

That's about it for now. I'd love to hear from you,

Hamutal

So, I'm finally beginning to get a little less stressed out.

I went to the other seminar on Monday and it's called Drama Noir and it's about Renaissance Revenge Drama and a little Film Noir.

I still have lots of reading, but I'm becoming more diligent.

I wrote a story this week for my creative writing class.

I let people in two of my classes taste some Bamba (to my non-Israeli friends - it's the best snack there is. It tastes a lot like peanut butter). My scheme is to get them all addicted and by so doing, make Bamba our famous national product that will get exported everywhere and thus I single-handedly saving Israeli economy.

What else? I learned some new facts and terms:

Tar Heels: The name of UNC sports teams, I think. I still have to find out the particulars. Some girl said the nickname is actually from the Civil War. The soldiers of the South were so devoted that they wouldn't budge, even when they knew they were defeated. So their commander said something about it looking like they had tar on their heels. I don't know if that girl was right, but it sure makes a nice story.

Ram: The representative animal of UNC. I have to say that in both cases I don't know if it's just Chapel Hill or UNC in general. I'll have to find out.

Sexcapades: Sex adventures

Sexile: Being booted out of your own room because your roommate is having sex (hasn't happened to me, thank God)

I went to a party Friday night, and it was just like you see in the movies, like those high school/college parties that get out of hand. First of all, nobody I went to this party with knew the girl whose birthday it was. Then we got there and it was so crowded that people were almost standing on top of each other, holding beers, of course.

I was specifically told by Martin, a very nice French guy, that most people there would be graduate students, and that was true. I met some nice journalism students. One that looks like a combination of Maddie from Suddenly Susan. and Sarah Jessica Parker, only with shorter, darker hair. Her name is Victoria and she's from Argentina. I also met her classmates James (a native) and another from Croatia, but I don't remember her name. There were a lot of other French people except Martin (the group I came with was mostly French). There were other international students too (Peru, Senegal and many more countries).

I like having guy friends again. After being in the Foreign Literatures and Linguistics for so long, I've learned to miss it. I feel like when I was in the army. It's funny to feel 21 again, but I can't help it when everybody around me are about that age.

I also met this really sweet boy from NC. A Freshman. I'm old enough to be his... older sister. But it was nice talking to him.

People here are so polite. They always greet you, never try to take your place in line (even argue that you were there first) and hold the door open for you (guys and girls). It's quite a change from Israeli mentality, as you well know.

That's about it for this week. Tonight's the Super-Bowl and after that the new Survivor. I'll tell you about it if I remember next week.

All my love,

Hamutal

Can you believe It's been already a month since I got to the US?

Anyway, this week was in most part just like the weeks before, only I was studying even more. It's really quite hard.

The interesting thing that did happen this week was on Thursday. Our basketball team played against our bitterest enemy, the neighboring Duke University. Now Duke's team was number 2 in the country, and we were number 4. And the game took place in Duke, which gave them the advantage.

The game was full of suspense. Seriously, it was the best game I've watched in a long long time. After the first half we were leading by quite a bit, and people just went wild in the dorms. It was so cool. It was the first time I've actually felt that I was living in the dorms (that, and when I do laundry). People screamed and jumped up and down, and hugged each other.

Anyway, it took only a few minutes for Duke to get some three pointers and then it was practically even for the rest of the game. Now by that time I was already wearing my newly purchased UNC Tar Heels shirt and I was standing in front of my TV (that's how wired I was) and giving the evil eye to Duke.

Finally, we won by 2 points (85:83) after one of Duke's leading players (Battier, we'll get back to him later) fouled our player when it was too late for him to succeed anyway (There was a little more than one second left to the game). So after the game we became number 1 in the country, and Duke number 3, so you can imagine what that meant to the people here...

So, when the game was over, people completely lost their minds in my dorms. Rob and Stewart - the Scottish guys - smoked cigars. Then we all went to Franklin Street, Rob and Stewart in their kilts and a UNC shirt, and everybody were there - the whole campus. And people were creaming, and there were bonfires (which Rob and Stewart just had to jump over) and signs and people sitting on top of trees and bus stations. And they were screaming "UNC" and "Go Heels!" and "Fuck Duke" and "Duke sucks" and "Who's your daddy, Battier?" (Somebody even had a printed shirt which read "I'm your daddy, Battier" - and in case you're not familiar with that slang, it's impossible to explain. Just understand that it's not a good thing to say).

Now people really digged the kilts. The guys seemed to admire Rob and Stew's guts, and the girls... I don't know, but they were surrounded by girls. Finally, somebody asked Rob if he would mind being recorded on camera (for local, maybe even university TV, I didn't get that part) and he agreed, and then he turned over and pulled up his kilt, and as a true Scottish lad, he wore nothing underneath. I laughed so hard over that.

Then we went to this really boring party, so I found other people who were thinking the same, and we came back to the dorms.

On Friday Tatiana invited everybody to our room to watch Coyote Ugly on DVD (via Jesica's laptop). It was quite a silly, simplistic and sexist movie, and I was a bit upset with her for asking everybody without consulting me first, but whatever.

Saturday I met with my relatives who're living in Durham, and we went shopping. They took me to this really cool store with all kinds of healthy foods (All I ever find around here is junk food, but somebody from one of my classes told me she would show me where I can find real food on campus).

My relatives told me that (grown) people were actually in mourning in Duke on Friday. It's so funny, the seriousness in which this is taken.

And that's about it for this week.

I'm attaching an address where you could see some pictures of the wild celebrations that took place on Franklin Street:

http://northcarolina.rivals.com/default.asp?sid=37&p=2&stid=8103583

And also, here's a virtual tour of the campus, if you want to see where I hang out:

http://www.ais.unc.edu/sis/admissions/grad/ctour00.html

Have a nice week,

Hamutal

Nothing much to write this time.

As usual, I studied a lot. I had to post a biographical/bibliographical report on one of my course's web page, so I had to do a lot of research for that.

Other than that, I got my first grade for something other than a story. It's a P+. What is a P+ you would ask. Good question. As if the letter grading system wasn't complicated enough, the graduate school has a different system. H = honors. I don't remember exactly what it is, but it's 90+, P = Passing grade, it's from 78, if I'm not mistaken, to 90. L = Low passing grade, so I guess it's from 61 to 77, but I can't swear on that. It's really confusing. And then you have another letter for failing grade, but it's not an F. Go figure. Anyway, a P+ is a really good grade, I think (I hope).

I spent Friday and half of Saturday with my relatives who're living in Durham. And on Saturday night, just when I was beginning to feel sorry for myself for not going out when everybody else are, I got a phone call from this girl with whom I only talked twice through the net and she said that she was having a party and that her roommate would pick me up in ten minutes. So I tried my best to get prepared as fast as I could, and it was a very good party. It wasn't too crowded, the music was good, the people were interesting and I had a very good time. Plus, these people had a cat at home, and it's the first cat I've seen since I got here, and I really missed seeing cats.

So that's it. I've really neglected my studying over the weekend, so I'd better go do something about it.

I'll be happy to hear from you,

Hamutal

So, it seems that I'm reaching the third stage of my swinging moods regarding being here. In the first two weeks I was delirious. It felt like a dream. In the next three I felt quite homesick, and everything looked too much for me to handle. Now I actually realize that I'm making an old dream come true, and that it isn't necessarily what I thought it would be, but that it's still something very unique that I'm doing; something that will stay with me forever. Now I also know that when I leave in 3 months I'll be a little sad, and I'll miss this place.

Nothing spectacular happened this week, so I'll just talk about general things, for example music. The most popular song around here seems to be the annoying Love Don't Cost a Thing by Jennifer Lopez. If I hear it one more time I'll scream so loud that no matter how far you are from me right now, you'll hear it. It's actually not the worst song I've heard in my life, but after the hundredth time, it does become obnoxious.

Other songs that seem to be popular here lately are Dido's Thank You, Madonna's Don't Tell Me and a song whose name and performer I can't remember, but whose chorus starts with "Why? Why you always kick me when I'm high?"

What else? This week the elections for Student Body were held here. It was rather boring. Except for fliers and posters there was nothing much.

On Tuesday I met somebody from Israel, a religious guy, with a black kippa and a beard, who sat by a desk with the Israeli flag tightened across it, and a box of Bazooka bubble gum on top of it. So you see, I had to check that out. We started talking, and I found out that he was there to promote a program called "Birthright". It's a program that offers a free trip to Israel to anybody who's Jewish and has never been to Israel. Their goal is to make sure that every Jewish person will have visited Israel at least once in his lifetime. That guy was the one who told me about the terrorist attack in Holon, and he said that he was going to join the army next month (which honestly surprised me). Anyway, we had an interesting conversation.

On Friday I went with my relatives to a Conservative synagogue. It wasn't the first time for me, but I'm not much of a synagogue goer, as you well know. Still, it was interesting. On Saturday I went to this wonderful store called Michael's which is an arts and crafts store, and it simply has everything you can dream of (except for water-based varnish, but nobody's perfect). So I bought some paints and brushes and I'm going to make time for painting, because I really miss it and I really need something to do besides studying.

On Saturday night I went out with a few people in an attempt to celebrate my roommate's birthday (She just turned 21). After waiting in line for a long time, freezing, we got into this place called Top of the Hill, just to find out that the people we were meeting were on their way out. We contemplated going to a party (a long discussion which took place in the cold), and finally decided to buy a few beers and go back to the dorms and celebrate there.

On the way, we sang Happy Birthday in every language we knew (and between us all, it was about 5 or 6 languages). The party improved greatly once we arrived at the dorms. I met some interesting people I didn't know before; One original North Carolinian guy who's doing his undergraduate degree in Economics and another Japanese guy who's doing his PhD in Economics (but we didn't discuss Economics - I'm totally ignorant in that field).

So that was about it. Next week I'm finally going to watch a basketball game here.

Take care and keep in touch,

Hamutal

So, finally I had a normal week, with a reasonable amount of homework, and I really enjoyed it.

Most of the week was pretty boring. The first half of the week was quite warm. In fact, Wednesday was so warm I only wore pants and a shirt, and I was quite hot. Then Thursday I woke up at 9 and realized it was snowing outside. That was the weirdest. It wasn't even that cold outside. It only became really cold in the afternoon. So as you can see, the weather here is wacky. I was told it's because of the topography of North Carolina, and where Chapel Hill is located within it.

Then, at night, I went to my very first basketball game. It was quite exciting. I'm still amazed of how seriously people take college sports. I saw 50 year old men, who no doubt usually wear suits, wearing UNC T-shirts, and disposable Tar Heel tattoo on their cheeks (it looks like a blue foot, with a stain of tar on the heel.) But the best part was seeing this woman who looked at least 75, with a huge Tar Heel sticker stuck to her high white hair.

The game itself wasn't the best game the Tar Heels had this season, but it was quite an experience to watch it live. I mean, I'd never been to a basketball game before. There were cheer leaders, of course, but they weren't at all annoying. They were divided to two. One group was regular cheer leaders and the other were gymnastics - guys and girls - and they were quite impressive. Then there was the Tar Heel mascot - the ram. He was funny.

My seat wasn't the best in the house but it was okay except for one thing: I had the misfortune of sitting right behind an overenthusiastic jerk who kept standing up every time our team was about to score. I told him something about it and he acted as if I were a party pooper, saying he came to the game to enjoy. What, like I didn't? Also, he kept shouting at the players, referees and coaches, as if they could hear him. But I didn't let him ruin it for me.

In the end, we won, by more than 20 points (we played against Florida). I came back, worked on one of my stories and was about to go to sleep when at half past midnight the fire alarm went off and we all had to evacuate the building and stand outside in the cold. Of course, it ended up being nothing, but it took the fire department a lot of time to get there.

On Friday I went to a fascinating lecture by a visiting professor from Australia whose expertise is Hollywoodian movies. He basically talked about the multiplicity of interpretations in classical movies and how and why they were allowed to exist. I found it specifically interesting because it's something I keep thinking about myself.

A note about the libraries here, while we're on the issue of scholarly work, the main one, where I usually go, has 8 floors, all huge. Apart from that, there are about 15 other libraries, or even more. Can you even imagine that?

In two weeks we're going to enter Spring Break. I'm going to spend at least most of it with my relatives who're living in Durham. When we come back I'll already be more than half way through my time here. I'm beginning to feel sad about that.

Tuesday my creative writing class is going to discuss my newest piece. I hope it goes well. Sarah - my creative writing instructor - promised to help me get permission to visit a high school while I'm here. I want to do it as a part of my research for the novel I've been trying to write in the last few years. I really hope I'll finish it this coming summer.

Also, for all of you who wonder what I'm eating while I'm here, here's a link to a typical menu (this does not mean, of course, that I eat EVERYTHING on the menu).

And I'm also providing you with the link to my roommate's site. It's in Portuguese, so most of you won't be able to understand much, but I mainly want you to look at the pictures anyway. That's all for now. Keep in touch.

Hamutal

Well, this has been a hard week for me in terms of school work. I had a presentation on Monday, that went okay, but not very well. My story was discussed in class on Tuesday, and that went really well. I had a paper given back to me on Thursday, whose grade wasn't bad but rather disappointing. On Friday I had an awful exam. I knew all the material, but didn't have enough time to finish writing my answers. This had never happened to me before. I'm really frustrated by that. It wasn't a hard exam, just too many questions for me to answer in one hour.

A word about exams here. There's something here called "The Honor Code" and they keep talking about it, and what it means to break it (it's practically no cheating, no misusing of university's property etc.), and I was secretly snickering about it, until it was time for my midterm, and I was able to bring my own pages, and had no overbearing "DODA" looking over my shoulder. In the middle of the exam I suddenly looked up and realized the instructor was gone, and nobody did anything improper. People just wrote their exams. So I guess the system here is not too bad after all.

On a more cheerful note, I finally seem to have made a few friends among the people in my classes, mainly my creative writing class. I'll let you know more about them later.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras. It was mainly felt in the dining room, where there were special yummy foods, happy music and colorful decorations. Later I went to my Drama Noir's movie night, where we watched the fabulous Gilda, and somebody brought as a refreshment a Mardi Gras special called King cake. Like somebody from the course defined it, it's mainly sweet bread with lots of sugary icing and food dye. Another person told me that a plastic baby was embedded in the cake, and that its finder was going to have luck for the whole year. I commented that I thought we finally found the perfect refreshment for our course, with all those plays dealing with people baking other people's children into pies. I guess you had to be there. This course encourages the development of a sick sense of humor.

On Wednesday I went to my second basketball game. That one was more interesting than the first, because the other team put more of a fight, but we still ended up winning. The atmosphere was more electrifying because we were playing against NC State, who are old rivals. There were more people in the audience, and they were much louder. I also learned the words to some of UNC's cheer and fights songs. My favorite starts with:
"I'm a tar heel born
I'm a tar heel bred
And when I die I'm a tar heel dead."
(By the way, I owe you a correction to something I wrote a few weeks ago. The legend regarding the tar heels is from the Revolutionary War, not the Civil War. Also, I've heard other explanations for the name, one being that it was a common by-product of NC industries in the old days, and that it was used by people from other states as a demeaning term, but was later appropriated by the North Carolinians as a symbol of pride.) Anyway, as I said, we ended up winning, 76:63, 27 of those points were scored by a wonderful player named Josph Forte. He's absolutely unbelievable. A real joy to watch. If you're interested to read more about this game, you can go to this report. If you want to know more about sports at UNC, go to The Official Athletic Site.

On Friday night I went to an 80's dance in a place called The Cat's Cradle. I went with Rowena from my creative writing class, her boyfriend Phil, and their friend Chicko. A few words about Rowena. Her real name is Heather, but she's trying to gradually get the world to adopt her alias. All the people in my class know her as Rowena and that's the name she uses on her stories too. She's a 20 year sophmore, a native North Carolinian, a big fan of Anime (Japanese cartoons) and faeries. I'm sure there are plenty other interesting things to write about her, but I still don't know her that well. The dance was really cool. Most people dressed accordingly. I didn't have much to work with, having a very limited selection of clothes here, but I managed to put something together. I basically used hideous make up colors, banded my hair to the side, wore a glossy body suit and leg warmers. Rowena went with the fishnet panty hose look. Chicko dressed and moved like Thriller's Michael Jackson (he even participated in the costume contest.) Other people dressed like pankists, some like Flashdance wannabes. The best costumes were three girls going as the ghostbusters (and they indeed won first place) and a few guys that went as Bauhouse. It was a really nice party, and I saw some other people I know. On the way back I learned that Phil is just a day older than I am, although it's possible that due to the time difference we were actually born on the same day, and that's really cool.

One last note, we lost the big game against Duke by 15 points. It was really frustrating. The Duke guys played fantastically and our guys somehow just didn't keep up, and that's with one of Duke's lead players not playing. Oh, well.

This week was pretty boring in general.

The only really interesting day was Wednesday. I got out of the dorms early that morning, and bought my usual hot chocolate (I don't drink coffee anymore. Can you believe that?), when suddenly I heard the opening music of an old Gidi Gov song (a note to my non-Israeli friends - Gidi Gov is an Israeli singer). So of course, I turned my head and looked for the source of the music and realized that all the booths in the Student Union Square (also known as The Pit) were covered by Israeli flags. So I went and spoke with the people, who all belonged to NC-Hillel. It was kind of funny, to see how they try to transfer some kind of an image of Israel that they have as non-Israelis. For example, there was this one girl with a fake IDF (TSAHAL) shirt, which screams "I got ripped off because I was a tourist", and she was very proud of it (I saw her wearing it before). They also brought a few sheep and a camel and placed them in the middle of the square to make it more realistic (their words). I said that it's actions like that that make it hard for me to convince people I don't ride camels to school. But it was all just jokingly - both what they said and what I said. Anyway, I was glad I met them because I might join them for Passover, if I decide to celebrate it this year (as most of you know, it's one of my least favorite holidays and I usually try my best to ignore it).

That day I had a lunch date with two of my creative writing classmates - Colleen and Edith. Colleen is 30, but she's still working on her undergraduate degree. She seems to be the embodiment of the saying "Still waters run deep." She has the quiet and serious look, but she's quite adventurous, it seems to me. She's moved a lot and experienced a lot and she wants to join the Peace Cord once she's done with her degree. She's very deep and insightful. I love talking to her. I don't know Edith very well, but it was her idea to have this lunch (she sent an email to both Colleen and me, asking us if we would like to meet for lunch. I thought it was really sweet of her.) She just turned 26 on Thursday. She already has her undergraduate degree in English and right now she's working at the university in some kind of a secretarial job. Both Colleen and Edith are extremely talented. I just love their stories. I can't wait to see their names in big print. I'm sure I will, if they don't get too discouraged at first. We promised ourselves that we wouldn't. We also said that we'd keep writing each other and reviewing each other's works after this term is over. I hope we stick to it. I, for one, really need this. Colleen just bought a very expensive book that gives you all the information about who you have to send your works too, and how, and what kind. There's a new edition every year. It looks like a good book, and I think I'm going to buy it. I need to start thinking seriously about writing, if I'm ever going to be published. Edith bought a big bulletin board for all the rejection notes (she learned that from Stephen King's book about writing. It's quite popular here.)

Anyway, lunch was really nice. We ate at a place called The Cosmic Cantina, where they serve Mexican food. I ate a vegi burrito. It was quite good. I have to say something about the food here. As much as I like it in general, it doesn't seem to agree with me. I don't know what exactly it is, but I think it might be the tomatoes. In any case, lately I've started having heartburn. But back to this lunch, the best part was the conversation. We talked about ourselves, and our aspirations and fears, and about the course, and other people, and their stories, and what we're learning, and what we want to do next. We ended up agreeing that we have to do it again soon. I hope we will.

Then on Friday, Spring Break began. Everybody was getting crazy a few days before it. I've been staying with my relatives in Durham ever since, but I'll probably go to San Francisco this coming Wednesday, to visit my other relative who lives there. I'm sure I'll have a lot to write about after that.

Hamutal

P.S. We lost to Duke again on the finals of the ACC tournament. It was painful to watch. We were being slaughtered.

So the first couple of days were quite ordinary. I woke up quite early in the morning, rode with my relatives to their daughter's school and then they dropped me off at UNC, where I spent my morning and noon in the library and the gym.

On Wednesday, however, I was on a plane to San-Francisco, having been sent a ticket from my very generous relative - Steve - who lives there.

The flight was fantastic. Steve arranged for me to get a Business Class ticket (via his Frequent Flier Miles), so it was very comfortable. I took two flights - one from Raleigh to Chicago and one from Chicago to San Francisco.

I got to San Francisco by late noon. Steve picked me up in his Range Rover (one of two cars which he's very proud of) and we drove to the Silicone Valley at San Jose, where he works. We first went to a cafe and then to his office. I got a visitor's pass. Steve's working place looked like I'd have imagined from watching TV. It's kinda like in Dilbert. They all work in cubicles. Now a note about Steve. He's 32, very sweet, likes to party, loves living comfortably and having a lot of gadgets and toys, on which I'll speak more later. I'm not sure what exactly he does at work, but it obviously has something to do with computers.

Steve showed me around and I've noticed that they had a nice conference room, and a refreshment room (that has free drinks and a snack vending machine). He also showed me what he called "successories" (meaning, accessories to show the company's success); they were mainly posters of the company's clients (Steve's company - Siebel Systems Inc. - developed some kind of a software which is supposed to be very good), and also some motivational one (about how to teamwork etc.)

Anyway, I surfed the net and read some more Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (finally I had time to do that), until it was time to go. By that time I was really tired because I had to wake up early, and because I flew half the day. Steve and I went to his house in Menlo Park. It's a town of around 40,000 people. Steve lives in the part that borders Palo Alto. Steve showed me his other car, which is his baby. It's a Honda racing car (it has 6 gears). It has two doors. It's bright yellow and built low to the ground. Then he showed me all the conveniences he has around the house. He can lock and open his door using a remote like a car remote. He has a remote for all electrical appliances in the living room. He has a flat screen that is both a TV and a computer screen. He has something that's called Tivo, which is like a VCR, but not really, because it doesn't tape on tapes; it tapes on memory. For example, we got to the house about fifteen minutes after Survivor had started, but it was saved in the memory, and we could fast forward the commercials until we got to the point of watching it live in the end (which you can't do with a regular VCR). But we didn't, because we had to meet Steve's girlfriend - Beth - to dinner. Beth is a technical writer for a successful company. She used to live in Israel for a long while, so she knows Hebrew very well.

We went to Palo Alto and walked around a little until Steve and Beth figured out where we should eat. It was a nice restaurant, I don't remember much about it because I was really exhausted, just the waiter was the too-friendly kind, and that Beth said she'd had him before and that he was weird. The food was good, though, and that's all that really matters.

So we finally got home again and I crashed on the sofa, which was very comfortable, not before Steve threatened again to wake me up at 5 something AM in order to join him for his physical fitness class. I kept saying that I'd rather pass and that I'm really not a morning person, but it didn't seem to affect him.

I woke up around 7 (which was 10 according to my body, due to the different time zone). I was relieved to find out that Steve had not kept his promise/threat of waking me up in such an ungodly hour as 5, and let me sleep in (Beth later said I looked too peaceful to wake up). Anyway, soon Steve came back and started squeezing wheat grass juice. Yes, it's as bad as you think. It's so yuppie. Steve said that by drinking this you provide your body with nearly all the vitamins and minerals that green vegetables provide. Ladies and gentlemen, it was horrible. Don't ever drink it. Steve said I should gulp it down like tequila. I did, but it kept coming back to me for the next few hours. I felt like a cow. Seriously, there's a reason why cats and dogs eat grass just before they intend to throw up.

Then I went with Steve to run some errands (in his cool yellow race car.) First, though, we grabbed something to eat and drink at this fashionable cafe, whose name I can't remember. On the way he showed me this place which sells expensive second-hand cars (like Ferrari and Porsche etc.) He's really into cars. It's a combination of a guy thing and a cultural thing, but I just stood there and nodded a lot. It's not that it wasn't interesting, it's just that I don't know much about cars. Then we went to the courthouse, where he paid a traffic ticket for running a red light (but he also filed a request for a trial. If he is proven innocent, he'll get the fine money back). We peeked at some of the trials that were going on (nothing serious, but it was interesting to look at.) Then we went to a Wells Fargo bank where he opened a new account (by the way, he has Taz checkbooks. Isn't that sweet?) Then he explained to me how to get to the train station and told me to call him later so we could meet in San Francisco.

I was scared at first, but then I just went around Palo Alto, enjoying myself, until I got to the train station, got on the train, and by the time I got to San Francisco I was really excited. I found out which bus I must take to get to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and I took it, but before going into the museum I just walked around a little and took a tone of pictures, especially of the buildings. There was an interesting mix of old and new in that part of the city. And I followed my interests to a Japanese garden that had mostly interesting birds, and some interesting people. I started talking with a few high school students who just spend their day at the museum, and they told me a little about one of the exhibitions they visited. So I crossed the street and went into the museum. I was very excited about that. I love museums.

First I went to see the permanent collection, which is dedicated to all forms of modernism and what emerged of it. They had a whole room dedicated to the Swiss painter Paul Klee. There were many works by Henri Matisse and a lot of other works, including ones by a fantastic Mexican painter named Diego Rivera, a sculpture of Michael Jackson and his chimp Bubbles by Jeff Koons, a painting by Salvador Dali and the part that made me the happiest - a painting by my favorite painter, Rene Margitte (Yes, big bro, I realize that I "stole" your favorite painter, but what can I say? You have a good taste).

I also briefed through other exhibitions, but the more technologically advanced they were, the more of a headache I got. The crown jewel was a photography exhibition named Native to the Land, which presented photographs of Native Americans from the years 1870-1930. I was particularly happy because it helped me solve the mystery of what I was going to write in my response paper for my American Memory seminar. I already knew I wanted to write about Native Americans, but this was perfect. So I ran down and got my notepad and started writing down whatever I found relevant.

I spent about 4 hours in the museum, and it was now about 4:30 PM, and I started walking. I didn't have a map, but I knew that I was in the center of everything, and that the streets I was walking were the most famous and most touristic streets in the city, so I wasn't worried. I just let myself follow my intrigue. I took a lot of picture of people. There were so many interesting faces and body languages, I couldn't resist it.

At about 6 I called Steve and we agreed to meet at North Beach at around 7:15. I found a map in the middle of Union Square, and so I started walking to North Beach. I still had to call Steve one more time when I got there to be reminded exactly where we were supposed to meet (an Italian restaurant named The Steps of Rome), and then I got there. It was a long walk, but I enjoyed it. Steve came late, we drank something, called Beth, and went around North Beach to look at the interesting shops. We went into an interesting one that presented all sorts of exotic arts, mainly African. We met Beth there and then went to a very famous beatnik bookstore named City Lights. It had a large variety of books on many different subjects. I found it amazing to see how many books there were about homosexuals and lesbians, but I should expect no less from San Francisco. I thought about purchasing a collection of Dorothy Parker's poems and short stories, but decided it was too expensive, but I did end up a book I was going to purchase anyway, which is a guide to the literary market, intended for short fiction and novel writers. It was very big and expensive, but it's a step I want to take. I have to try and see if my work is publishable. If I don't try, I'll never know. Anyway, Edith and Colleen already have this book and they swear by it.

Then we went to Chinatown, which was quite lovely to see. Beth said that she thought she'd heard that it's the biggest Chinatown outside of Asia. We went to a store that sells all kinds of tea and everything that has to do with making it. We went to cheesy souvenir shops. Finally we went to a nice Chinese restaurant where we had dinner. Again, I was exhausted, so I was really happy to finally get to Steve's house.

I woke up after 7 again to see that Steve did not wake me to his physical fitness class as he had threatened to do the night before. Later I realized that he overslept himself. I managed to avoid drinking another glass of wheat grass juice too, so I felt quite lucky.

Steve had a hairdresser appointment and then he left for work, and I was waiting for my pen pal Kyra to arrive. I've been corresponding with her for nearly 4 years, although we've sort of lost touch lately, but I never thought I'd be able to meet with her. She works at Berkeley University, where she also got her undergraduate degree, and I think she lives in the area too. Anyway, at around 11 she arrived, and it was weird at first, but not too weird. We just sat and talked for a while, and then she took me to a cafe that she swore was the hottest place (a fact which Steve later confirmed). Then we went to Belmont, her hometown, where I briefly got to see where she went to school, and we stopped by her parents' house, so I got to see it and her sleepy little brother (I think he's in college now). By then I was really hungry, so we went to a place that Kyra said made the best sandwiches and took them with us to the beach (I think it was the Half Moon Bay Beach). We sat and ate. It was cold and windy but so beautiful. And the way there and back was really pretty. It reminded me of the way to my first Northern army base.

Now Kyra just got this new car with manual gear, and she doesn't know how to drive it well yet, so she parked her car someplace near San Francisco and we took the train to town. The night before, Steve and Beth talked about a place called Castro. They said it was the most colorful and interesting place, and that it was the place most identified with gay culture. So we decided to go there. And it was indeed interesting. First of all, there was the rainbow flag on every post on ever street. On the windows of the shops there were notices such as "Gay owned and operated." Most people in the shops at least were very stereotypically gay, but I don't know if that's how everything is. We saw some really funny T-shirts in one of the stores. Some of them were too obscene for my delicate taste, but some were just funny. Here are some of my favorites:
(Kyra's favorite): So many Christian right wings, so few lions
So when is the wizard coming back to you about that brain?
Your village called. Their idiot's missing.
My sexual preference is not you.

There were also beautiful murals, not only in Castro but all over the city (a mural is "a very large image, such as a painting or an enlarged photograph, applied directly to a wall or ceiling"). Then we called Steve, and while we waited for him we went to a chocolate store. Every piece of chocolate cost like a piece of gold, but they were really delicious. (I bought two, Kyra ended up buying half the store). Then Steve met us. He had to park his car first, because there was no place for the three of us there. Then we just walked for a while, looked at stores, went to get something to drink and nibble on, and to decide what we're going to do that night (since it was, after all, Friday night), so Steve bought a paper, and called Beth, who was supposed to join us later. We finally agreed on a play and Kyra and I hurried to purchase the tickets. The play's name was Snake Bit and the plot took place in San Francisco in 1998, and I don't remember enough of it to tell it correctly, so you'll have to do without. We did enjoy the play. It was funny at times, although it definitely wasn't a comedy. Then we went to eat, I don't remember where, but we all ordered some kind of crepe.

Again, I was completely exhausted, but I remember we drove in Beth's car. We went to a beautiful street which is all decorated by murals. I regreted it being so late, because I couldn't photograph them all. Then we went down Lombard street, and later we also went to some of the higher hills, from which the view of the city was the best.

At some point we started discussing our plans for the next day (Steve was going to take me to Stanford), and Kyra asked if she could crash at his place, so she could join us in the morning, and Steve said okay, so he drove her to her car, and I went with Beth, trying very hard not to fall asleep - but it didn't work.

When we got to Steve's, I went straight to sleep.

We woke up quite late. I actually woke up before everybody else (again the time difference) and watched The West Wing via Steve's Tivo. Then we took Steve's bike, the bike of his roommate (who conveniently wasn't there the whole weekend) and Steve's rollerblades. We pumped some air into the tires of the bikes, loaded them on the Range Rover and set out to Stanford.

Now I'm not the world best biker, and Kyra hadn't ridden since she was 10, but considering that, we did quite well. Of course Steve was very fast and efficient on his rollerblades.

Stanford was beautiful. Kyra, being a Berkeley student, could not afford to admit it, but I think she thought so too (not that it was her first time there). Mostly we just rode our bikes and looked around us, trying not to fall, but we stopped for two important places. One is where all the Rodin's sculptures were and the other is the Stanford Church.

We then met Beth for lunch, which we bought in this health store (but it was good. It wasn't like you'd imagine), and we kept trying their sample oranges, which were very good.

After lunch and a quick shower, we headed to Monterey. In Monterey, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The most original part of it was the petting zoo. I got to pet a ray, and a few other interesting marine creatures.

Then we drove to a place called Carmel by the sea. It's a beautiful place, with a beautiful beach. We went first to the beach, then up and down the main streets, looking at the shops and the galleries. Then Steve looked for a restaurant which he remembered from previous visit. When he finally found it he called Beth's cellular phone, and we went there. It was very classy, and very expensive, and its interior and history were exquisite.

By the time we got back to the car it was getting late, and I was worried that I wouldn't make my flight on time. Then we got into a huge traffic jam on the high way, caused by construction works (bad timing for such work - Saturday night). We got to Steve's about 40 minutes before my flight was supposed to take off. I packed very hastily (luckily, I hadn't unpacked much), and we arrived at the airport on time. Steve still ran around the airport, looking for bubble gum for me, because of my ears. He couldn't find any and ended up bringing me a bag of gummy bears (I don't think I'll ever be able to look at another bag as long as I live). Then I boarded on the plane - the very last passenger.

The flight was great. I had the kind of chair that you can make into a bed, so I slept quite comfortably. The second flight was also quite good.

I spent two hours at the airport reading the material for my seminar (I had finished reading Harry Potter when I was at Steve's), until my relatives came and picked me up. We went to the mall, and then to eat, and then I was back at the dorms.

I was one of the first people to show up. Everything was still empty and quiet, and I was a little sad to come back, especially since I knew that already more than half my time in the States had passed, but I used the relative quietness to do laundry and catch up on my emails.

Hamutal