Nearing the end of day one

Well, as I'm nearing the end of day one, I am in the same place as I was this morning, a great little cafe.  I have no idea what the name of it is, as it is all in Hebrew, but hey, it's nice and they have a menu in english and the wine is quite nice!

So I have a few observations to make and maybe an anecdote or two.  I now have pillows.  I did a lot of exploring today and found the Grand Canyon mall which is near my apartment.  It's down a giant hill.  easy to get there, no fun to get home with all the purchases.  I now have a pillow!  I also now have groceries and come tomorrow morning at 10am my time, I'll have an Israel iPhone.  Not sure if it's the 4 or the 4S, but I don't really care either way, as I don't have to buy it.  I simply rent it!  Brilliant!!!

So I have a few things to say about Israel.  The first is that there are a lot of freaking spiders!  There are not enough cups in my apartment to cover them and there are too many of us to co-habitate so I have had to resort to actually killing them.  This is not an easy task for me, as those of you that know me well know, I have a more than paralyzing irrational fear of those things and in this country even the daddy long legs are bigger!!!  Seriously, it sucks for this total arachnophobe.  Secondly, everyone who told me that Israel drivers are nuts and always have a cell phone in hand...you didn't really due justice to how nuts they are!  Taking corners on screeching tires.  Barely stopping before hitting people.  It's insane.  Oh and the cell phones...Well on my way from the airport to Haifa I took a sheirut (spelling might be a little off, I apologize, but don't feel like looking up the correct spelling right now), which is a shared taxi (aka shuttle/mini bus).  At one point the driver was talking on one cell phone, texting on a second and still managing to shift the stick shift.  I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or terrified.  Third, there are way too many stray cats for my liking!  I won't be taking any in!

Well, that's all for tonight.  I am going to enjoy my wine and then head home and get a good nights sleep on my new pillows!