on wednesday daniel asked that i start work promptly at 8:00am to help cater a small breakfast at the owner of the hotel's home. the breakfast was for a little get together his wife was having for her charity group (aka rich housewives of tel aviv, israel). i woke up, hurried to get ready since my mom and dave said daniel seemed nervous that i wouldnt be downstairs on time when they saw him at the breakfast buffet at 7am.
at 8:00 i met him in the office and i followed him around as we went from point a to point b to point cdefg in the hotel to gather the food, cutlery, appliances, etc that we may need. it occurred to me as we were doing this that it was just daniel and i going to the house, to "cater" this event, when we arent even a catering company let alone 2 people who actually have EVER done this before.
by 9am we had everything packed in the car, inspected by the head of f&b, and headed on our way to north tel aviv in daniel's little ford focus (the ford focus isnt the kind of car he has but thats the closest thing that comes to mind at the moment). there was a lot of traffic, i kept commenting that i can't believe they were having daniel do this and he better be getting a nice bonus. daniel kept saying "i dont know why" in his israeli accent with an amusing smirk on his face. within 5 minutes in the car daniel hits the breaks and we hear some of the food crash somewhere.
"Oh my g-d"-me
"oh well, what are we going to do now?-daniel (think thick israeli accent)
"hahaaaaa. this is a disaster"-me
"this is what she wanted, we do our best. if things all spill on the way there--what we going to do? lets listen to music"-daniel
then we sang along to nelly furtado's "say it right" together.
25 minutes later we arrive to the house. it was interesting being in an "upper class suburb" of tel aviv. the house's arent lavish or mouth dropping like they would be in the states, but you could tell the area was taken care of, it was so peaceful, and near enough to the city that it didnt have the stir crazy feel in the air.
daniel kept dreading having to talk to the wife. i dont remember her name so i will call her W. to walk into the house there was a large gate, so we called her in the house, and she came out to let us in. i was holding this huge cake when she came out (i carried it on my lap to the house) and right away she started pointing at it and saying something to daniel in hebrew that i couldnt understand, but i could tell she wasn't happy.
she walked away and daniel mentioned that she thought the cake was too large. we began taking the food into the kitchen. the house was great inside, it was decorated in a very new age, laid back but put together away. there was sunlight every where so it had this relaxed, beautiful, calming feel through out it. it was as if you were in your own oasis but also knew the bustle and liveliness of the city wasn't too far away.
at one point W came over saying something to me in hebrew in a serious tone....i interrupted her and said "ani lo medeberet ivrit"
"ahhh. english?" then she had a huge smile on her face, and whenever she spoke to me she was very friendly, which resulted in me feeling quite bad for daniel. anyway, we set everything up and i kept thinking how ridiculous it was that we were here putting this food out that didnt even look that great after being tossed around in daniel's car. the ladies from the charity group started showing up (there were only about 10-15 coming), and daniel and i were in the little kitchen (it was the guest/preparation kitchen in the house) putzing around. i couldnt believe we had to stay there until they were done around 12 and i also was exhausted because i had not been sleeping much this week and i was starting to feel sick.
around 10am daniel came up to me....
"have you been to kikar ____ (i dont remember the name)?"-daniel
"nope. whats that?"-me
"it isss down the street. high end stores. want to go for an hour or so?"-daniel
"not really, i dont mind staying here and helping you"-me
"no you should go"-daniel
"what? are you sure? ill stay here and help"-me thinking "the last thing i want to do is go walk around outside in my suit, in the heat, and go "shopping" and i dont even have my wallet on me.
"W said she only wants one of us here for at least the next hour"-daniel
"are you serious?"-me
"yes"-daniel
"wow ok"-me
and off i went into this wealthy neighborhood of tel aviv, in my suit, in the heat, to try and distract myself for at least an hour. i walked past the house and to an area that had a bunch of apt buildings, but the street was lined with trees, it was quiet, and had a bunch of park benches. I was so exhausted and sick to my stomach (i was getting sick) so instantly i thought "i dont care, i am going to take a nap on this bench".
i took off my jacket, laid down on my back and closed my eyes. it actually felt great and i didnt feel strange about it. i felt like i was in a park, the breeze was blowing, the birds were chirping and quickly i fell into a light sleep.
the next thing i know i feel some one's presence over me...
"slicha?"-taxi driver/nice man (excuse me?)
i open my eyes to see a cab driver standing over me.
"kol beseder?"-taxi driver/nice man (everything ok?)
"ooo ken ken. i am on a break from work"-me
"tov"-taxi driver/nice man (good).
and he walked back to his cab.
i ended up staying on the bench until 11:15 and finally i decided to call daniel to see if i could come back--his answer was in 10 minutes.
by the time i got back they were starting to clear out but of course there were still a few stragglers and we had to wait until they all cleared. daniel and i just sat in the kitchen (with no air conditioning for some strange reason) and waited and waited. finally around 12:30 we were able to pack up the car and get out of there.
i also made $200 sheckles in a tip!! ($50). I started kissing the money in front of daniel and offered to take him out for frozen yogurt because we were passing the street where my favorite place was. however, we just went back to work because he was panicking about getting back to the hotel for an event that was going on although i swear he was just in a pissy mood again--rightly so after that experience.
i ended up getting back to the hotel and feeling so sick so i went upstairs to my mom and daves room and ended up not leaving the couch bed for 24 hours. i am not sure what i had, either just exhaustion or something crept up on me but i felt so nauseous. by friday i felt much much better so i took my mom and dave around the artists market and for some shopping on sheinken.
that night we had a shabbat dinner with the boy's upstairs. my mom came over early to help us cook and get ready. it was such a blast. i missed times like that. here are a couple pictures of us at dinner pre the 9 bottles of wine we drank...
i have so much more to write about but i have to go. my mom and dave left just a bit ago. it was really amazing to have them here. now that they are gone though i am back to resuming my regular life...the girls and i are going out dancing tonight.
xx
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