...my bus driver...

Bus drivers in Israel play a central role in the country's culture.  Everyone (or almost everyone) uses the bus/public transportation system, and everyone (yes, everyone everyone) complains about it.  But sometimes those goofy bus drivers can make your day.  This morning, I went to work instead of ulpan (yay, I'm done!!), a first from my new apartment.  I haven't figured out exactly when my bus comes each morning (obviously not on schedule--so Israeli), so I planned on leaving my apartment a bit before 9a and hoped I would get lucky.  As I was coming down the stairs, I saw my bus.  My stop is just down the hill about a block from my apartment and across the street.  I took a run for it (dead sprint!).  The bus passed me up as I was waiting to cross the street, but then it slowed.  The traffic light up ahead must have turned read.  I kept up my sprint but the bus started going again.  It pulled into the station, and I wasn't yet there.  Luckily, there were a few people getting on at the stop, and the last person had just paid (with that silly RavKav) as I came up panting.  When I jumped on though and put my RavKav in the machine, the green light didn't go on.  The driver mumbled something that I didn't hear, so I asked him if my card had worked.  It was so Israeli when my bus driver sort of chuckled and said, after that long of a run...it worked.  Of course it worked.  I'm glad that he appreciated my early morning sprint!  And I'd like to think that he might have waited for me if my sprint hadn't quite been sprint-y enough.

Unrelated, the weather is finally starting to cool off here.  It is still pretty hot in the noon-time sun, but the nights are getting chilly.  It makes for great walking-around-at-night weather.  Last night after dinner (to celebrate the end of ulpan), I was walking around the neighborhood with a friend, and we were caught off guard by beautiful piano music.  We looked around and tried to identify the source, and right above our heads we found it: an open window with an elderly man sitting tall and play piano with verve and passion.  It was a pleasure to stand below his window and watch him, listening to the music as we enjoyed the first breaths of fall!