I plan on sleeping in late because it's my day off but I fell asleep watching 2046 at 10:45 (that's a little bit confusing huh?) and I slept restlessly all night so by 7:30 I'm up for good.  I read in bed until 8:30 when I head to breakfast with Boris and Christina who eat breakfast before starting work in the factory at 9.  At 9:30 they leave and are replaced by Andy, Karden, and  Chong who are returning from their first hour in the packing plant.  They've spent it building up cardboard date boxes.  Ha.  So I end up passing two breakfasts in the dining hall, the first consists of pancakes, eggs, and toast and the second of cereal and coffee.  At 9:30 they head back to the plant and I head back to the Oasis.  I pass the next half an hour shitting and reading leisurely (Yes I'm a toilet reader and no I don't care).  At 10 I pack up my bag for the day including my snorkel and mask and my lunch consisting, again, of a mango, some bread, and peanuts.

At 11:03 I arrive in front of Abbey's hostel and call her to come down and meet me in the lobby.  "Oh ok I just got off the bus" "Ok cool see you in a minute" "See you!"  The bus station is only a 2 minute walk from here so I sit down in the shade outside and wait.  15 minutes pass and she hasn't shown up so I'm sure she's lost, still I wait.  Another 15 minutes later I give her a call, "Hey.  You're lost huh?" "Yeah..." I ask her if she knows how to get back to the bus station and she does so I give her directions from there.  The humor of giving her directions to her hostel doesn't escape me.  15 minutes later she still isn't here.  I find myself feeling extremely blessed to have a decent sense of direction.  Well, geographically at least.  Existentially I have no fucking clue where I'm going.  By this point I've found a nice spot in the shade in the park across the street.  I spot the 20 bus stopping just down the block from Abbey's hostel which is very fortunate for me because none of the stops in Eilat list the 20 bus so if I hadn't seen it while I was waiting it's doubtful I would've been able to catch a ride home tonight.  Maybe things happen for a reason?  I doubt it.  (There's an interesting quote I highlighted about coincidence in the Bolano book that I'll try to remember to post later).  It's hot out an Abbey has her backpack so I figure it's only a matter of time before she gives up and pays for a cab to the hostel.  That time is 12:06.

Abbey drops her stuff off in her room and then we walk down to the 15 bus stop to catch the bus to Coral Beach.  We wait for 10 or 15 minutes before I convince Abbey to walk.  It's another 3 or 4 mile walk in the sun and much hotter this time.  We stop along a deserted stretch of beach with some umbrellas for lunch at 1:30.  It's picturesque and I feel incredibly lucky.  We jump in the water to cool off and take turns with my mask and snorkel.  Then we pack up and keep on walking towards Coral Beach.  We stop along the way at a gas station and buy 3 tallboys for 24 shekel to bring with us.  At Coral Beach Abbey rents a mask, snorkel, and fins for 20 shekel and we sip our beers contentedly.  After we're done with the beers we find a shady spot in the sand and take turns watching over the stuff while the other snorkels for a bit.  While I'm taking the first shift a beautiful Russian-Israeli offers me the empty chair next to her.  We talk for awhile and I play up the kibbutz card.  Then it's my turn to snorkel for a bit.  My favorite fish are the big purple ones with green and red luminescence flickering about.  There's also these REALLY long and skinny ones that I like.  When I come out to give Abbey another turn the Israeli girl is gone which is too bad but I end up talking to a beautiful Swiss girl for awhile before she too has to leave.  At least I got to talk to some cute girls.  After awhile Abbey and I are both tired of snorkeling so we just sit in the sun.  She naps and I read.  Sitting on the beach looking out on the Red Sea and Jordan everything becomes so surreal.  I live here right now.  This is my home.  

At 6:30 we flag down a cab and our driver is a cheerful Jordanian who keeps saying "Don't worry, be happy!"  We stop at a shwarma place near her hostel for dinner.  At 7:15 I say my goodbyes and head up to the bus stop to catch my 7:30 bus because I've heard it's not very reliable.  At 7:36 I'm bracing myself for the walk home when the 20 pulls up.  I say "Kibbutz Eilot" as I hand the driver my 6 shekel and he asks "Kibbutz Eilot?" in surprise.  "Can" I nod.  I guess it's been awhile since a volunteer took the bus.  Just as I sit down the album on my ipod changes.  I haven't heard anything that I don't like on Dan's playlist so far but this one is something else.  Compliments to the chef.  I check and it's The Lemon of Pink by The Books.  I'm expecting the bus driver (who is matching me in short shorts and Chocos) to drop me off on the highway but he drives all the way up to the dining hall.  I call out "todah!" as I jump off and head to the Oasis.  I run into Boris and Chong and ask them how their first days went.  They seem in good spirits.  I jump in the shower without changing to rinse the salt off my suit and my mask and then type this up.  I have 2 new followers today, both seem to be strangers so cheers to you both.  

Hopefully everyone will hang out in one place tonight, maybe the hookah will unite us if we can find some more shisha.  Not looking forward to work tomorrow but I'm pretty sure I won't be sweeping so that's good.  No pictures today because I left my phone in my room.

    Se fate serata in zona universitaria o sbevazzate gaiamente al Barattolo, sappiate che l'ultimo 20 in direzione Pilastro passa in via Irnerio all'1:03.

Se invece vi siete scolati l'Oceano Indiano al Pratello, cominciate a uscire dal Barazzo (tanto lo so che siete lì) all'1 esatta, che all'1:05 l'ultimo 14 vi porta in zona Stadio e, se proprio avete sfiga, alla Barca.

Di solito ci sto attenta: scruto oltre i vetri con occhi sgranati squadrando ogni sagoma in cerca di indizi. Ieri sera in San Donnino sono entrata senza curarmene e ho rischiato grosso.

Erano tre, erano enormi. Ciascuno col suo borsello blu lungo il fianco e il blocchetto di fogli gialli alla mano. Sono scesi mentre io salivo e solo guardandoli di spalle ho potuto notare il rettangolino bianco fare capolino tra cintura e pantaloni.

and sticky is to awesome

Must charge DS tonight so that i can use precious bus time to play in Bus 20's Mario Kart Championship!