Week 4

This weekend, my friends and I took a bus (several buses, in fact) down to Tel Aviv to celebrate Purim in Israel’s most “lit” city. Bisecting Israel’s Mediterranean coast, Tel Aviv is the most technologically advanced, commercialized and Westernized and second most populous city in Israel. Although apartments in Israel are often small, we managed to squeeze all nine of us into a pleasant AirBnB, located next to Rabin Square.

Purim in Tel Aviv was insane. All across town, the streets were flooded with costumed youth – to the likely chagrin of Tel Aviv’s local drivers – and policeman desperately trying to direct traffic. On Thursday, my friends and I spent the evening walking and taxiing around Tel Aviv, exploring different areas and sampling new frozen yogurt and falafel stands. On Friday, we dressed up again and walked to the massive annual Purim street party (pictured below). The DJs played a lot of Deep House, Electronic and general rave-type music. Although the arena was hot, muddy and crowded, my friends and I danced away the afternoon and had a blast.

On Saturday, we ran into a bit of a dilemma. While we were scheduled to vacate our AirBnB at 11:00 am, the buses in Israel were decommissioned until evening for Shabbat. Fortunately, the landlord permitted us to leave our belongings in the apartment while his maids came to clean. We piled our bags in a corner and spent the day at the beach. The water was beautiful, and my friends and I enjoyed relaxing and recovering from the weekend’s festivities under the sun.

As of now, Purim is officially my favorite holiday. Picture Halloween on steroids – but new and exciting and with way better food.

Noah Falkner is a University of Maine student. He studied abroad in Haifa, Israel in Spring 2018. This article originally appeared on the Haifa International School website.

Read Noah’s previous articles

Studying Abroad in Israel – Hiking & Haircuts
Studying Abroad in Israel – Field Trips & Groceries
Studying Abroad in Israel – Welcome

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