After taking the bus from my house to the airport, I checked in and flew to Sde Dov, the small airport right in Tel Aviv, having taken some nice pics of Tel Aviv from over the Mediterranean shortly before we landed. From there, I walked to the Souraski (Ichilov) Hospital. It wasn't very hot, and almost the entire walk was in the shade, but it was humid and I felt quite tired, so I rested several times. I still got to the hospital in a little over an hour. Of course, I did take some flower pics along the way. :-)
I located the MRI and was about an hour early for my appointment. Nevertheless, I got in fairly quickly, although I did end up having to wait quite a while sitting in a waiting area wearing only my shirt, a mini-skirt-length hospital wrap-around gown, and flip-flops. I had even locked my glasses away in the locker with my clothes. All of this, of course, is because one can't have ANY metal in the MRI since it works using a very powerful magnetic field.
This was the first time I'd ever had an MRI, and it was quite an interesting experience. The setup looks quite similar to a CT machine. You lie on a narrow bed which slides into a tube where the imagining equipment is located. However, the MRI took quite a bit longer than the CT scans I've have (they told me half an hour, and that seems about right), and it can be a little difficult to lie perfectly still that long. I had earphones over my ears (presumably with no metal parts!), but I still heard very strange sounds, like extremely badly written electronic music. But I just relaxed, and much of the time I closed my eyes.
After it was finished, I waited just a few more minutes and received a disk with the images. I won't get the actual results for about 2 weeks, although I have an appointment with the oncologist (at the same hospital) on the 11th.
Then I walked out and over to a spot where there are many buses and took the number 601 bus to Netanya, where my friend, Moshe, walked out to meet me and guide me the last bit of the way to his apartment. I am so grateful to him for letting me stay the night there!
I walked a total of 7.34 kilometers yesterday.
In the morning, I woke up at 5:30 (I had set my alarm because I hadn't gotten to bed until nearly midnight), got up a few minutes later, and headed out to catch the first bus to Tel Aviv, which arrived at a nearby bus stop a little after 6:00. That bus (number 600) took me to a point just short of HaYarkon River, where I got off and walked the short distance to the airport.
At the airport, I had a plain bagel, some watermelon cubes, and a Coke Zero for my breakfast. The flight left about 10 minutes later than scheduled, but we had no problems flying easily to Eilat. I took a number of pictures. We flew out over the Mediterranean Sea and then circled back around to the land, going just north of Herzliya, I think. From there, we flew inland over Samaria, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea. As we approached Eilat, I got a couple of nice pics of the upper part of the city and the Eilat Mountains, one of which is today's pic of the day (it shows the area where I live, but my building is obscured by a nearby one which is much taller):
I also took a picture of Taba, which is the small town in Egypt just south of the border crossing. Finally, I got several pics of the northern end of the Gulf and the North Beach just before we landed.
Although it was 32ºC (90ºF) when we arrived in Eilat, the dry desert air felt SO great after the humidity of Tel Aviv. I even considered walking home, but it's uphill almost all the way, and the sun was pretty hot, so I took the bus instead.
I was scheduled to teach 5 units of Berlitz lessons today, but the first student turned out to be a no-show: 11:00-12:30, 2:45-3:30, and 4;30-6:00.
It's a good thing that the first student didn't show up because I was beginning to feel really exhausted. When I left after waiting the required full hour, I almost immediately went to bed and slept for about 2 hours (I had set my alarm, and it's a good thing I did!). After I got back up, I felt much more rested and taught the rest of the classes easily.
I walked a total of 2.61 kilometers today.
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