It's actually Thursday night, but the weekend here is Friday and Saturday (sunday is a work-day). The Jewish "shabbat" (sabbath day) is observed from Friday night until Saturday night. This means Thursday night is the "out on the town" time for most Israeli's.
One thing I've slowly noticed is that most of the residents of Tel Aviv seem relatively fit. There are very few people here who are overweight. I was asking Eran about this, and he figured it was due to the fact that people rarely 'stay home and watch TV'. People are prefer being active. Traffic-jams at 2am in the city are, apparently, not uncommon because people prefer the city-life to the home-life. It should also be pointed out that, while they do have fast-food here, it's not common and seems to generally be avoided by the locals (the tourists, apparently, are the ones funding that industry). As I've mentioned in previous posts, salads are very common with every meal. The general lifestyle combination of frequent activity and healthier eating is clear when you look at the people compared to most random American cities.
I've also discovered (the hard way) that restaurants won't bring you your check until you ask for it. It's considered rude to do so -- since it's assumed that if they put the check on your table, you'll leave. Meals here are a very social activity for the people and a stay at a sit-down restaurant can last much longer than we're used to. A few years ago, Starbucks made a huge push to open locations in Tel Aviv. It wasn't long before they all closed, citing lack of profits. The locals don't understand why Americans like Starbucks so much. "They give you your coffee in a portable cup and there aren't enough places to sit". Apparently, 'food services to go' is a model that the culture here has a hard time accepting. (However, to be fair, they are very fond of 'ordering in' for office lunches -- they view going out to lunch as a major distraction from the work-day.
I'm constantly surprised at the number of people here who speak english fluently. So far, I've, not run into anyone who doesn't speak english well enough to carry on a basic conversation -- and most speak it so well that they sound like an American with a slight accent. As if that weren't enough to make me feel like a single-language-ignorant-american, many people here speak a third language as well (Hebrew, English *and* Russian!)
It's well past bed-time here. I'm sure I'll have more things to say after my tour of northern Israel tomorrow.