Awesome

This is the dog from downstairs. As seen, he's a bulldog. I think it's pretty ridiculous that there is such an animal that looks like his front end is so much heavier than his back end that he may topple forward at any given moment. I also think it's ridiculous that the dog is convinced that he is a cat. Whenever he charges us to nuzzle our legs, he "purrs."

On another note, I started another service job today (previously, I was compiling quotes from the Writings about subjects liek Baha'i Identity for the psychologist here). I am now volunteering at the Baha'i World Center's grocery store. I feel like I should be proud of this, for whatever reason. At any rate, I'm just doing chores for them. Updating their pricing system, doing random checks through the store, counting the mad amount of toilet products that they carry (???). The other thing I got to do today was make some fresh-squeezed orange juice for the other workers. I've not had that for so long. It made me think of being in Phoenix last winter and having lemonade (freshly squeezed) with Grandma (probably the last time I had that). So, I'm hard at work with the automatic juicer ; ) picking up the second half of the work, because the store manager had squeezed in the first half of the juice. Some of the oranges were so seedy, that was such a pain. And then, after 7 or 8 oranges, I got a special one, (ie. it had maggots/worms in it). Throw that one out. So, I finish a few more later and the store manager, Eric, serves it. I get my cup and had the first, glorious sip. And another. And then I looked down. (You did see this coming, didn't you?) And there they were. Worms. Waving at me from my orange juice. I had kept them out... someone else had not! Another worker noticed them right around that time, too, and she started the straining. So, I guess going abroad isn't complete without one of those experiences, is it? (I swear, one day, I'm going to go to Europe, and I'm going to pretend that they don't do anything gross there, either).

So,... yeah. That was my morning. No, wait, that wasn't all of my morning. My morning started when the alarm went off at 6 for Mendon. I didn't need to get up until 7/7:30. I'm usually good at sleeping through alarms if they're not for me, but I just cannot ignore Mendon when he's awake and talking to me like I should be as well. : ) This morning, he wanted to know what the plan for his day was. Like, do I need to call my ride for work, or will he call me? Do you think I should wear my watch today? I don't think so. I'm done at 12, right? So I can have lunch with you... Oi, Mendon, will ya cut that stuff out? It ought to look like I'm trying to get some sleep here! : )

As for my afternoon, I had lunch in the cafeteria, which has lots of good, healthy, western food. I tried some Israeli pudding today... gross. Way, way, way too sweet. And Mendon and I have been taking a break in the flat for a while now. We'll probably head up to the shrines in a bit and then we'll return for dinner. Who knows what we'll do tonight. Maybe watch a movie.

Last night, by the way, Mendon and I were busy bugs again. We slept to a talk about systematically studying the Writings, and after that we went to have dinner with Mara and Mark, which was great. I was so completely exhausted by the end of all of that. This is because we were at the bottom of the mountain for the talk and dinner, and Mara and Mark live closer to the top. This would be fine, except that we were even closer to the bay, to the bottom, earlier that night so that we could go to the "mall." We did a lot of walking up and down that mountain, and I was not pleased to think that I would be going up once again. More important than my lazy self, is a comment about the mall. Israel has some scary images. Really scary. Like, the one for TNT (clothing store) that had a young woman situated so that she could be seen through the legs of the man-model. Fine and all, until you see that she has her mouth open, her pierced tongue out, and she's smiling and staring intently at his crotch. Good God I did NOT need to see THAT. So much for being in the Holy Land.

Anyways, I don't have anything else to write, and I have no smooth way to wrap this up, so I'm done.