Leave Me to the Vultures!

Oh the things we do to make friends. While talking with a coworker at the Embassy either Paul or Jen mention that Jen's bike had just arrived, that she enjoyed biking around the city and the park, and that Jen had done a triathlon. All true. The coworker invites Jen to go on a ride with she and her friends on Saturday morning. Great! Opportunity to make new friends!!!

So at 625am on Saturday morning the coworker picks up Jen and her bike and they head out of the city for the long ride. Fast forward 2 hours - "Leave me to the Vultures!" Jen is thinking, "I don't think I'm going to make it back to Tel Aviv," "I am NOT a biker"..."Bike for sale"..."Free Bike"..."I should be protected from this by the UN Declaration of Human Rights!!"...."Throw bike off of balcony!!!"

Although Paul and Jen were reassured that these ladies were slow bikers, 20 years Jen's senior, and this would be a shorter ride - they didn't understand that this was coming from the equivalent of a marathon runner! Imagine taking your 1986 tricycle on a hundred mile ride with Lance Armstrong. That is how Jenny felt. (Really she had a road bike (from the 1980s) and the ladies weren't quite Lance - but pretty close!)

The 40 kilometer ride (~2 hours) up and down hills wouldn't have been so bad if Jen had had all of the professional gear the other women had. What was she missing? The shoes, the pedals, the biking shorts/pants, the shirt, the jacket, the gloves, the glasses, the headband, the pump, the spare tube, the cushioned seat, and the (on average) $1,000 triathlon bike. (Compare the bike to the right vs. my bike)

Why in the world did I think I could do a 40 kilometer ride with my old bike, running clothes and my Target helmet? I don't know. It was crazy! I almost died! (exaggeration...I almost gave up, threw up, and then collapsed).
But I was saved :)

About 20 miles into the ride - Jen's bike broke. Yes, broke. The wheel was crooked, the chain fell off, something bent. Thank you God! The other women (save one) biked back to get the car and came out to pick me (and the other) up and drive us to the end. During breakfast after the ride (remember - this is 7am on a Saturday!) the women were joking about how I must be thinking how old they were...true - how did someone that much older than me just make me feel so out of shape! These women are amazing! They vowed to take me to a bike shop and get me back out there with them on a better bike...and training for the Tel Aviv triathlon.

Eeek! Do I really want to be turned into that serious of a biker? Can I really compete in this triathlon against these women?

On the positive note - it was a great experience! I saw the country-side, got a great workout and met some really nice women! I'll update later on my decision to keep biking with them or do the triathlon in May.

Tel Aviv & Coffee

Tel Aviv is an odd city with regards to its coffee. On the one hand it has a thriving cafe culture - much like my beloved Buenos Aires - in which there is a cafe on almost every block and you can find people enjoying a cup of coffee at almost any hour. There is wireless internet at the cafes, light food, a good atmosphere and friendly baristas.

While there are many smaller independent cafes, the most popular is Cafe Cafe. You can think of it as the Starbucks of Tel Aviv. (There are no Starbucks in Tel Aviv - I guess they came in a few years back, failed and fled.) Our neighborhood loves cafe so much that we have 2 Cafe Cafe's right across the street from each other! (One is Cafe Cafe and the other is Cafe Cafe Kosher.)

Anyway, the other hand of the cafe culture here is such that people drink great coffee in the cafes, and really crappy coffee at home. The grocery store has a section about 2 feet wide with coffee - 80% of which is instant! There are a few bags of expensive "Turkish" coffee which are about the size you get in your hotel room (and look to be the same quality).

The conundrum here is that Jen LOVES coffee. I think this is in large part thanks to her dear friend Alexandria who shared her great coffee with Jen in college :) Jen has a coffee bean grinder, a french press, coffee cups and these adorable little red espresso cups (thanks Kathryn!)....and no coffee to put in them :( The "Natural Foods" grocery store (in quotation marks because they also sell fruit loops)had a bag of coffee that looked decent for about $8, but it was finely ground and that doesn't work too well for my french press.

Lamenting the lack of coffee - a coworker told us we could buy good whole bean coffee at The Coffee Bean. So, Jen biked the half mile to the Coffee Bean in search of the infamous whole bean coffee, and there it was! A large bag for 190 Shekels! ($51.35)!!! Oh my gosh! Needless to say, Jen still has no coffee. Any recommendations for online coffee stores that ship internationally???

Full Work Week

Most things in our life right now revolve around Paul's work. This is not bad at all since the people he works with are great. I mean - revolving around work has meant a really fun welcome dinner at the boss's house last weekend, meeting the Biden's on Wednesday, and last night was a "Wheels Up" happy hour celebrating that the VPs airplane's wheels were up and nothing went wrong! Kind of a big sigh of relief for everyone who worked to make his delegation a success (as it is seen by them). The happy hour was a great chance to meet a few more people (like the #1 in Paul's office, the Ambassador and the #2 at the Embassy!) and a great chance to celebrate Jen's new job!!!! I interviewed last week and found out just before the happy hour that I got the job! They have to do a security clearance (this will be #3 in the process - sorry to all of you who will be contacted possibly 3 or 4 times with the same questions about me!). This clearance is small though and they will rush it - so it should only take about 2-3 weeks. Yeah!!

In other life news - my bike is here! I bought a great road bike before we left which has the thinnest tires you've ever seen and the handlebars lean very far forward (one biker here told me she would be scared to ride my bike!). Long story short - I have to buy another bike. :( Unlike DC where there are a hundred bikers more daring than me, I seem to be the daring one here. Most bikers ride on the sidewalks and don't wear helmets (I'm not that stupid.. I may look like a dork, but I'm safe!). Unfortunately for me and my thin tires the cracks in the sidewalks are the same size as my tires so they easily slip into the holes, and the transition from sidewalk to street to sidewalk is not smooth. Think of driving your car through a maze of potholes the size of your tires, and going over massive speed bumps (humps) every block. It will be much easier to do which a mountain bike, so I'll have to save my road bike for longer rides outside of the city. In fact! - I just met someone last night who does a 50k ride on the weekends! And! I think she is going to split a triathlon with Paul and I in the Spring! I'll bike, Paul will swim and she will run! Yeah!!!! :)