A Night in Tel Aviv

Because Lior had to study yesterday for a final exam in his General Neuroscience course, I knew from the moment I woke up that I'd either have to (a) succumb to another lackluster day in Rehovot or (b) make some fast new friends. Determined to avoid the former at all costs, I went down to the main lobby of my residence hall with book in hand, and waited for some excitement.

Around 11:00, a few students started to gather round a nearby table, talking and laughing together, patting one another on the back. Minutes later they were joined by another couple of people, increasing the total number in the pack to six. My stomach churned and my palms began to sweat. From my cozy upholstered seat at a distance of no more than forty feet, I watched the interactions from the corner of my eye. I felt the carotid artery in my neck bulging and pulsating from an increase in blood pressure. I realized what I had to do. If I was going to make new friends by noon, I'd have to face the scary bunch of foreign creatures and introduce myself. I shook my hands and cracked my knuckles. I slid my tongue over my teeth and pressed it against the inside of my upper lip. I bit my lip to try and relax it. I stood up. Then, ignoring all premonitions that this was a terrible and devastating and just plain stupid thing to do, I awkwardly treaded over to the group huddled around the small coffee table. I swallowed what little saliva I had in my parched mouth, cleared my throat, and blurted "Hi. I'm Clay." "Oh shit," I thought to myself, "I'm such a fool! What kind of a dumb ass do you think you are just randomly walking over to a group of people and deciding to become friends?" Then, before I could get any farther in my self-ridiculing, the guy to my left introduced himself: "Hi, I'm Dave. From Boston." Circling through the rest of the group I was introduced to everyone else and within minutes I'd been accepted and invited out to breakfast. I exhaled deeply and leaned back into a chair. "How ridiculous!?," I thought. "How could you have been afraid of this, of embarrassment!? Even if they're already a close-knit group, who says they don't have room for another. Why dance around a subject, playing games, waiting to make friends. Good job,Clayton! Nice way to take action!"

By the time we'd walked the few blocks down Herzl St. to a small brunch café, my upper-lip had completely relaxed. The warm sun weaved through the shade of the towering ficus trees that line the busy street. I felt completely relaxed in my new situation. Content and at ease.

There are four basic questions that everyone asks at the Weizmann Institute upon meeting a new person: (1)"What's your name?," (2)"Where are you from?," (3)."What do you study?," and (4)"How long are you here for?" Dave is from America, studies biochemistry and cancer, and leaves in only two weeks. He just graduated with his bachelor's and decided to take a year off before heading off to medical school. Nina and Elisha are both from Germany. Nina works with Dave. Elisha, well, he studies materials chemistry. Jodi is Australian and is in the psychological neuroscience department. She's been eating crackers for the past week as a result of food-poisoning in Jordan. Agnesh is Hungarian and researches chemistry. She returns to Hungary in a week but then returns in three months time. Jiovanna is Italian and is interested in cancer. She's both a devout Catholic and a typical Italian, and misses all the great Italian food that she can't get in Israel.

At brunch, the seven of us pulled together three tiny tables at an outdoor café and ate Shashouka (an Israeli dish with tomatoes, eggs, and spices) and drank various juices, lattes, and cappuccinos under the shade of a yellow-and-white striped canopy. Nina, Dave, and Elisha understand a little Hebrew and taught me a few key phrases like "ma?" (what?), "efo..?" (where is..?), and "kama ze oleh?" (how much does this cost?). Jiovanna got into an argument with Dave about our waitress because he thought the waitress was being genuinely friendly and interested in him and Jiovanna was convinced that she was more interested in a good tip from an American. Once we started talking about the progress of our research, we all decided that the best way to spend the rest of the day was to get caught up on work and then meet up later that night and take a cab into Tel Aviv.

After spending the day organizing my data, grabbing some groceries, and taking another stroll around the Weizmann Institute, I put on a nice pair of jeans and a collared shirt to head out for an Israeli night on the town. I met up with Nina and Jiovanna on the roof-top of our residence hall where we drank some Israeli beer and waited for the others to join. It was quite pleasant sitting outside in the cool weather beneath the stars. Dave came shortly after and informed us that Jodi was still feeling sick and that Elisha and Agnesh weren't going to be coming. But…Australian Dave and a couple other people would be there in a minute. With the addition of Aussie Dave, Maha from the Phillipines, Gabriella from Israel, and Leah from Mexico, the eight of us signaled two cabs on Herzl St. and drove off to the New Port in Tel Aviv at 11:00.

Of the two clubs we went to last night, the second was definitely the more entertaining! Because we had to choose between a club for 18 year olds and a club for people over 27, we all decided it would be best to sneak into the 27 and up club by pretending not to have our drivers' licenses. Instead, we presented our very cool, laminated Weizmann Institute ID cards which lack a birth-date. The Israeli club was a lot like any club that I've been to in Tucson. However, unlike in America where a night out involves a lot of heavy drinking, Israeli people seem a little less concerned with getting plastered. Nobody in our group or around us pressured one other to drink. Each of us had no more than a couple beers, which we complemented with water or soda. By far, we all found it much more entertaining to teach each other our super-cool dance moves which gradually evolved into a lot of arm-flailing and feet-kicking as the music changed from American pop to exotic Israeli beats.

By 3:30am, all of us were exhausted, with ears and feet aching from blaring music and blisters. We caught two cabs to Rehovot, slunk down into our seats, and rode back to town with the cab-driver's mixed tape of Shania Twain and Brittany Spears playing in the background. All in all, yesterday was a very busy day. In addition to learning about neural firing in the amygdala while I'm in Israel, I'm also learning a lot about all other sorts of cultures, am becoming more outgoing and comfortable with new people, and discovering how to acclimate to new environments. It's both extremely overwhelming and incredibly liberating at the same time.