From the Sea to the Circus to The Mall--- all in one City

Today, we are going to go swimming in the Mediterranean! We load up the bus and head for the Tel Aviv beach. (I think every city should have a nice beach front area!) It is already quite hot at 10 AM. The American kids each grab a chair under an umbrella until we find out that you have to PAY for each chair, umbrella and chaise (6, 8 and 12 shekels, respectively). We buy a bunch of chairs and umbrellas and set up camp. The kids are instantly in the water. There are some 'medusa' a.k.a. jellyfish. Tamer gets stung on his cheek near his eye and some of the others get some slight body stings but nothing major.

The kids do what kids do at the beach--- bury each other in sand and chicken fights. The partners change whenever I look. We are such a cohesive group. I like what Matt said in one of his interviews about thinking there would be a problem since we didn't all speak the same language but he said he found out that you need a lot less words than you think! We order pizza and it is delivered by someone on a pizza delivery bike. They have found a place with pepperoni and the American kids are thrilled.

We head back to the Green Village, which is also the headquarters for a youth circus known as Circus Florentine. This one was started by an Arab man named Nir who studied and performed in France. The American kids are pleasantly startled as they turned a bend in the path and came upon a tent that looked almost identical to the one that houses Circus Flora. It is basically a smaller version of the same tent. Inside, however, there is no ring curb. Just lots of aerial rigging--- Nir is an aerial silk artists and is Bulgarian girlfriend's specialty is trapeze. They also have one of those inflatable floors for tumbling on.

Some of their students are there and we do introductions all around. We do a group warm-up, led by Nir and then split up into stations. Most of the boys go to the inflatable tumbling track. Elliana is thrilled to be on a lyra with a swivel. Renaldo gets Nir to teach him some great new tricks on fabric. Elle and their trapeze teacher trade tricks.

We reluctantly leave to go to dinner. Before we go, the trapeze teacher pulls me aside and asks if I have trouble in America with the kids and their parents thinking I am too tough. She is form the very stringent Bulgarian circus school and many of the Israeli kids and parents complain she is too hard on her students although, by Bulgarian standards, nothing could be further form the truth. I had Russian circus teachers, so I know how harsh their training can be!

After dinner, we take everyone to the biggest mall in Israel. The kids buy things for themselves, each other and folks back home (in Israel and America).