On Shenanigans

Volunteering…kind of boring at times. The archaeological dig kicks ass, but that's only one day a week (cause we have to be there until 3pm and we have classes starting at 2pm and whatever), so the other days we're stuck at the soup kitchen. Meh.

So the boss man (no speak-a-da english type) directs me and my boy Andy to the warehouse, where we're to separate the good eggplants from the bad eggplants. There's a solid three hours of work there. Got off to a good beginning, but boredom settles, and we start dicking around a bit, tossing eggplants, carving faces out of eggplants, dumb shit. I go explore the warehouse a bit and come back with this awesome wheelchair, buried pretty far back, clearly in disuse. We get to thinking: this would be incredible for Isaac's. The only problem is, how do we get the wheelchair out without being spotted? So we're a bit discouraged, but I'm determined…we need this wheelchair. There's a ton of clothes for donation in the warehouse, so Andy's all like, "why don't you just dress up as an old lady and I'll wheel you back." Now I'm a pretty impulsive person, so after laughing a bit, I'm like, "why not."

Time comes to put the plan into action. Andy distracted the boss man while I wheeled the chair onto the street and home free. We duck into an alley and I dress up as an old lady. Long, flowing skirt, old-lady sweater, and a white veil covering my head, but not quite enough to hide my beard. Pretty ridiculous. Now our route back home takes us through essentially the busiest, most crowded section of all Jerusalem, the Mahane Yeduha Market, otherwise known as The Shuk. Everyone stared. Literally, everyone. And we made it through The Shuk to the bus stop and waited a solid half an hour for the bus, getting "the eye" from everyone.

Disguise...impeccable

A few stares here and there

Getting on the bus itself was great because there's this nifty handicap ramp that folds out of the mid-section that I now can say I've used. After I got off the bus, I took off all my lady-clothes and the bus driver started cracking up and gave me a thumbs up. A few engineering moves later (involving hoisting the chair up the outside of the building), we now have a wheelchair (named Ethel) on the roof. Hell to the yes.

Handicap ramp status

 On another note, I did a fair deal of exploring today. I went to Gan Sacher (decent park) and set up my hammock for an hour or so and got some reading squared away. On my walk back to the apartment (about an hour and a half), I heard some loud psytrance music. I'm thinking, "tha fuck?" I walk closer to the sound and see a massive tarp in this botanical garden. I went to go check it out. Big nature party, what's up. Few hundred hippies just dancing and relaxing with some crazy awesome decorations on these trees surrounding a stage. There were a ton of dogs just running around, being pet by everyone. I met some really cool people there, danced a bunch, set up my hammock yet again and vibed out for a while before continuing on my way. I fucking love this city.

Alsatian Darn - Panda Bear