A few thoughts from this week

Yesterday I went for a walk at the high school across the street. I thought I would walk around the track to get a little exercise since I didn't make it to the swim center. When I got there I was surprised to find some military ceremony taking place (or maybe it was just practice- there weren't many people in the bleachers watching). So I thought to myself... if it's just practice maybe I can still walk around the track. I sat on the bleachers off to the side for a little bit to observe. They played some music through the speakers maybe the national anthem and then they did a drill with their guns. On second thought I don't really feel like being shot at so maybe I will find somewhere else to exercise. I walked over to the basketball court area and walked around the two full sized courts (it seemed close to the size of a track). I probably should have just got in the car and drove to the workout facility, but I wasn't quite sure when Ken would be done with work.

Today I was a little early to swim class. 3 of my friends were chatting in the pool, so I got in and joined them. I hadn't seen my friend Abraham in awhile but without fail he told me of his family that lives in NY. I talked with Shoshana and she was telling me about her time in Auschwitz. How sad. She was the only one in her family to survive. She showed me her shoulder and said this scar was from when they punished her. She took off her shoes (or they thought she was taking off her shoes and trying to escape) and so they shot her in the shoulder. It was a sad story. She said she didn't talk about it much. It's wierd to think I meet these people everyday and some of them have such difficult stories to tell.

This afternoon I met Ken at work for lunch. I had a great time eating food I didn't have to make and talking with Ken's co-workers. Everyday his whole team stops what they are doing and go to lunch together at the cafe. I was able to share my limited Hebrew with them and they seemed impressed. After lunch, Ken went back to work and I went to the mall and found a bookstore to look at travel books. I spent the whole afternoon researching Spain and Italy (I think that will be our next great adventure).

As for this weekend... I'm still not sure what we will do (if anything).

Need directions?

Believe it or not, we were able to help a couple of Israelies find their way around Haifa this weekend! We went for a walk up the hill and a car stopped near us. I shook my head and said "lo evrite" which I have put together to mean I don't speak Hebrew (I actually never asked anyone what I was saying, but it always seems to get the message across :-). The gals in the car said, do you speak English? And then asked if we were familiar with the area. I guess that is relative, but we said yes. They were looking for a park. I've been there quite a bit so I gave them my best directions- go straight for 10 minutes, till you see the big hotel buildings and there will be parking on your right about 5 blocks down. They seemed grateful for the help and were on their way. Not sure if they actually made it, but we were feeling pretty confident that we were able to actually help someone else for a change!

Our other neighbors (the Bears) invited us over yesterday and we had a wonderful BBQ. They had steak, hotdogs, chicken and sausages, along with 3 different salads, curried chicken, corn on the cob and baked potatoes. These guys really know how to eat over here! We were stuffed by the time dessert came around, Ken was happy to "help me" finish my chocolate cake. We stayed for about 4 hours and had a nice time talking with them and hearing about their upbringing in Haifa. When their oldest was born a war had just started and they were evacuated from the building the day after he was born. They were given a special portable incubator to keep him in while in the "safe room" in their house to protect from any chemical warfare that might be present. Yikes!

Today after work, Ken and I went to the beach. We believe the jellyfish are gone :-) We jumped a few waves and just laid on the beach for a few hours. It was so relaxing. Now it's time to finish my Hebrew homework...

Shabbat Shalom

Friday evening we were invited by our neighbors (Sherman's) to their house for Shabbat dinner. You know us... we said yes of course :-) We arrived at 7:30 and they were just finishing their preparations. I chatted with their daughter (Mayan,9) and learned a few words in Hebrew for eyes, mouth, teeth, and ears. Her grandparents arrived and we all sat down at the table. All the men had headcoverings while they said the blessing and broke the bread into large piece. The father put salt on the bread which reminds them of the difficulties they had as slaves in Egypt. They also poured wine for each of us and passed the bread around. I thought it was interesting that we were sort of having "communion" but they were looking back to the Israelites time in captivity, not to the freedom found at the cross. Then they sang a song of blessing and their 13 yr old boy read a short blessing. After the "ceremony" was over they put lots of food on the table and the feast began. It seemed like they made enough for an army. I commented on all the food and the wife said that this food would last for today and tomorrow since they don't cook (work) on Shabbat. We had 3 types of salads, rice, stuffed peppers, potatoes, fish, quiche and my favorite lasagna (I have to get the recipe for this!). It was quite the spread and very tasty. Safta and Saba (Grandma & Grandpa) were very nice and spoke with us in English a little bit. They said we must come to their house sometime for a visit. After dinner we sat around the computer and enjoyed pictures and a video of their oldest son's graduation from "leadership camp" earlier that week. For dessert they brought out ice cream, a plate of fruit, cheesecake and cookies. I was stuffed! The started to play board games but it was getting late so we only stayed for the first game. What an interesting experience.

This weeks adventures

This week consisted of Hebrew classes, water aerobics and hanging out with the neighbor kids. I'm finally starting to enjoy the Hebrew classes. I think we have gotten to a point where we know the teacher's personality and can joke around a bit during the lesson. Swimming has been good for me too, although one day while lap swimming I felt more like I was dodging everyone (no one was swimming in a straight line and it appears that age has the right of way). Tuesday I met a friend down at the beach in Caesarea. It took about an 1.5 hours to find her. Three tour buses pulled in just as I did so there were tons of people there. After an hour of not finding her I thought since I had already driven 20 minutes I would stick around and work on my Hebrew homework at the beach. She finally walked up the beach with her 2 year old and said she was late because her daughter had to be picked up from pre-school since she wasn't feeling well. In the end it worked out and we had a nice picnic on the beach. The neighbors invited me over to make cookies with them and then we made ice cream too. The cookies were interesting... actually they tasted fine but they looked a little funny. We used this stringy "shredded wheat" ingredient, butter and sugar. I'll try and post a picture of it. The icecream was okay. I think we put too many chopped hazelnuts in it and would have enjoyed more cream. It was a fun experience though. Yesterday they said they were going to the market and invited me to join them. We went to a different market than the one I've been going to. There were hardly any people there so it was nice to move about the street and look at the fresh fruits and veggies. They were selling pickles in old 2 liter coke bottles. I guess that's one way to recycle. I tried a fruit that comes from a cactus. It was sort of like a kiwi but with a ton of seeds they told me "don't chew, just swallow". I think one was enough for me :-) We also ate a meal at a famous little shop in the market. This lady has about 10ft x 4ft of kitchen space and her tables to the restaraunt our outside under an awning. In that small kitchen she had 2 propane tanks that had burners on the top where she cooked her food, she had a refrigerator and a small sink. I was surprised how much was on the menu given such a small kitchen! We had a few plates of different hummus and pita bread, a plate of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and pickles, 3 different kinds of rice mixed with different toppings, 2 bean dishes and some cucumbers stuffed with rice. It was actually pretty good. I brought home some leftovers for Ken ;-) So that's what I've been up to this week. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend since last weekend was so busy.

I got a letter today!!!

There was actually something in my mailbox that I could read today! It was not in Hebrew and wasn't junk mail!!! My grandpa (in his 90's) hand wrote me a letter and sent it in the mail :-) It was a good day!

Pictures of Turkey

Our Turkey Experience

We started our trip unexpectedly driving to TelAviv. The train was closed for the weekend (due to construction) so we ended up getting up at 5am and drove to Tel Aviv to catch the plane to Turkey. Ken's boss had warned us that this would be an interesting flight for us (not a normal domestic flight with business travelers). He told us to expect at least an hour delay, lots of kids, and chaos... Even with that advice we were amazed at the amount of cutting in line and pushing (every man for himself here). Any time we had turbulence kids would yell whoah... like they were on a roller coaster. Its also interesting that everybody claps both on take off and landing. Even though it was only a one hour flight, as soon as they could everyone was up and walking around the cabin. Instead of peanuts they served fruticake. Mmmmmm.

Well we made it to Turkey and now we had to find our bag and go through passport control.. We hadn't planned on checking it but at the last minute they told us we should. Finding it was not an issue, throwing a few elbows to get at it is a different story :-) At passport control they asked us for our VISA to enter the country. We looked at each other and said, we don't have one (the travel agent never said we needed one!). The guard sent us back to a window to buy a VISA - good thing we had that option (vs being sent back to Israel)! Passport control personnel seems to be the same no matter where you go. I think they go to a specific school where they learn to stamp the papers as hard as they can and scowl at the tourists.

We finally found our way to the tour bus and looked forward to the 40 minute ride to the hotel (the other place we could have stayed was over an hour away so we chose the shorter route). Apparently it's 40 minutes if you didn't stop at every hotel along the way to drop off other tourists :-) 2 hours later we arrived at the last stop (our hotel). The bus driver gave us a piece of paper with potential tours we could do but it was all in Hebrew. There were only 2 other tourists from Israel that got off with us. They were stopped at the front gate by a guard and tried to explain both in Hebrew and then in English that they had reservations for this hotel. The guard made them wait and then had them talk on the phone with the front desk... they looked at us and said do you speak Russian? Sorry we can't help you there. Finally they pushed their way through the gate and we followed (we didn't want to go through the same thing). All that to say, later on these girls (around 25 yrs old) became very helpful to us.

After checking in we went to the hotel room and realized the room was very warm so we tried to turn on the air conditioning with no success. We tried a quick call to the front desk to ask how it worked. With the language barrier all we were able to communicate was there was a problem and that they would be sending someone to help us. After about an hour with no assistance we decided to find something to eat at this all inclusive hotel. I guess they don't have anything from 3:30pm till 7pm. Yikes. We were both really hungry. We tried to kill some time by checking out the hotel and the beach. We went to the front desk again to ask for help about the AC (when it's over 100 and humid it would be really nice to have AC). Again they said they would send someone, but nobody came :-( We ate dinner and walked around a bit more. We were tired so we tried to go to bed. There were shows going on at our hotel and neighboring hotels well past midnight so it was hard to sleep. By 2am we were ready to ask for a new room. The front desk said there weren't any available but someone would come in the morning to assist us. We woke up early (or did we ever get to sleep in that hot/muggy room?) and had breakfast.

I had hoped to find out about some day trips around the city. I had looked at a book before we came and had a few ideas of what we might want to see but needed to set something up. Much to our dismay the only information available was in Russian and Turkish. The concierge didn't speak any English and we were running out of options. I haven't taken enough Hebrew yet to read the tour info we got from the bus driver. If only we could find those girls that got off the bus with us. Maybe they could read the paper to us. Ken thought he saw them at breakfast so we went back to the cafeteria but it had been almost an hour and they were nowhere to be seen.

We decided to go to the beach. The beach in Turkey was all rock/gravel. We found some lawn chairs (in the shade) and went for a swim. The water felt nice and cool as the gentle waves rolled over us. The activities director from the hotel walked by and announced they were playing beach volleyball soon at the sand court. Hmmm that sounds like fun. I suspected it would be pretty loosely played, but I did expect they would use the same basic rules I am used to. I was disappointed. I was the only English speaker so I couldn't even figure out what the score was. One guy kept making really bad passes and then telling me I should have gotten the ball. I hung in there for 2 games and then felt like I had been out in the sun long enough. The sun over here feels really intense. I didn't bring any suntan lotion because I didn't want them to throw it out when we went through airport security so I was constantly trying to stay in the shade.

After volleyball we went back to the hotel to check in on our AC dilemma and finally got someone to move us to a different room. When we got to the new room we immediately checked the AC before unpacking and this one seemed to be not working either. (Red flag here... maybe it's the Americans and not the hotel? We searched again for directions to the AC in the guest book or for a picture/diagram on the wall) We saw a cleaning lady down the hall and asked her (through hand gestures) how to work the AC. She seemed to understand us and showed us in the room she was cleaning. We felt the air coming through the vents and thought we would try it again in our room. No luck :-(. Back to the front desk to ask the manager to come with us to the room. There is obviously something we are not getting here... The manager said in one hour I can come help you. Okay. So we went to lunch and come back after a little more than an hour. A different girl was at the desk and she says he will be 20 more minutes.... and then 15 more minutes... and finally he is available. (I feel like we are spending our whole vacation trying to figure out the AC and what tour to go on.... wouldn't it be nice to be back in Israel where we know what to expect?) The manager comes with a technician to our room ... feels the cool air coming through the vent and says it looks like it's working just fine. How did you do that?! He said, you put the room key in the slot on the wall by the bathroom and turn the dials. This way the AC only runs while you are in the room and if you open the back door it will turn off. Hmmm that would have been a helpful piece of information. I haven't ever seen anything like that before even in my travels to Europe. We felt a little sheepish.

Now that that issue is resolved we can go to the pool and relax. While we were down there we saw the Israeli girls and thought maybe we should ask them if they are doing a tour tomorrow. They were really helpful and said they were planning a river cruise and trip to the market and that we should join them. It sounded like it was an all day excursion and we thought why not. So they called and set up the tour for themselves and included us as well. We met them at 8am the next morning and jumped on the tour bus, we drove and drove (nice to see some of Turkey's coastline) stopping at a few hotels along the way to pick up other Israeli tourists. I guess this tour was specifically designed for Israeli tourists and everything was in Hebrew. We stuck close to the two girls who translated the important stuff for us.

The bus stopped in a city called Side, where we walked through a little market (reminded me of Saturday market with jewlery, art and clothing for sale), got on a horse drawn cart and were taken to the middle of the town. Here we walked down to the pier and as we passed all the shops we heard "nice couple, I have something to show you" or "hello, come to my store". At the end of the boardwalk we saw some ancient ruins of Apollos Temple. The front of it still seemed to be in tact. It was pretty cool. After that we kept wandering through the ruins (the Israeli girls headed back to the market).

We found a man with a couple camels that was offering a ride to us for $25 each. Ken practiced his bartering skills and got it down to $10! The ride was only about 20 minutes but that was enough. It was actually pretty uncomfortable. Camels walk very "choppy" and I wasn't sure if I was going to fall out of the saddle or not. I was trying to tell myself if I have to let go... let go of the camera (I don't want to have to go to the doctor in Turkey!) It was a fun experience and we finished just in time. The girls told us we were only staying for 1 hour at this market so we had to hustle back to the meeting spot. Our only regret is we didn't spend more time in the amphitheater which looked to be in good shape still.

Back on the bus, we headed towards the boat for the River Cruise. The cruise ride was about an hour down the river. We docked at a beach and I just had to go swimming it was soooo hot. I didn't care if it was salt water and I would be sticky for the afternoon. The girls told us we were only stopping for 20 minutes and then would get back on the boat and eat lunch. About half the boat seemed to head to the beach and jump in the water. After a few minutes of cooling off I got out and sat on a beach chair under an umbrella for a few minutes. Ken sat next to me. I had a bit of a headache so I took some Tylenol and closed my eyes for a few minutes. When I opened my eyes, no one was in the water and there were only a couple people to my right and left. I looked back at the boat and it was sailing away, yikes... just kidding. It was getting full though so we quickly packed up our stuff and headed to the boat. There were a few people swimming around the boat so I decided to jump in... it was a river so the water was cool and not salty! How refreshing I stayed in for just a bit and then got out. I convinced Ken he should jump in and he was glad to feel the cool water too.

On the boat they just started serving lunch: Chicken or Fish and coleslaw, rice, potatoes -we thought this was pineapple, and bread. Maybe not my first choice for food, but when your hungry it's amazing what you can eat! We thought the tour would be over once we made it back up the river, but we had two stops to go. They took us to an outlet store where you can buy Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren shirts for $15. Suspiciously low to be the real thing. Regardless, the tourists were buying clothing like crazy! Ken and I sat back and enjoyed the free juice and AC at the front of the store.

The last stop was the Manavgut Waterfalls. It was a nice final destination. There were lots of tourists so it took awhile to get a picture of the falls. Ken also tried his hand at bartering again and picked up 6 postcards for $1! Not bad. The guy also tried to sell Ken a map. He said it was $5. Ken said no thanks and started to walk away, the guy came up to him, put his arm around him and said "for you my friend $4." I told Ken I didn't need the map and we walked away. It had been a full day and we were ready to head home. It took about 2.5 hours to get back to the hotel and we just made it in the dinner window so we were happy about that.

That night we went to the evening entertainment which consisted of all the little kids from the hotel doing a little dance for their parents (it was cute) and then they played Bingo. This was the most entertaining Bingo game I have ever seen. The cards only had 3 lines and 5 column (but the columns didn't have any letters associated with it). Basically you had to get a whole line completed in the first game, any two lines completed in the second game and all three (blackout) in the third game. They did have an extra rule that anyone who called a false bingo would be thrown into the pool. Hmmm that sounds interesting. I tried to get Ken to yell Bingo even though he didn't have a card but was unsuccessful. The speaker called the numbers in Russian, Turkish and English (mom- someone asked for Flemish numbers since they were from Belgium). The second game is where it got interesting. A kid (maybe 12) in the front row yelled Bingo so they stopped the game and had them come up with their card. He took one look at the card and said to the lady who was sitting next to the kid, you maam please come up here. Are you with this child? She was his older sister (maybe 25?). He asked her if they remembered rules of the game, reiterated that a false bingo meant a swim in the pool and the entertainment staff rushed her off stage to the pool. Immediately it seemed like a 1000 children ran after them towards the pool to witness the event. It was pretty funny! She seemed to be a pretty good sport and they did offer her a towel and an alcoholic beverage when she returned. Most entertaining Bingo game I've seen in a long time :-)

Sunday we had a leisurely breakfast and packed our bags for the trip home. Interesting trip. We think we saw enough of Turkey... we would have loved to see Ephesus and Istanbul but with our limited time and language skills it just wasn't possible. We chatted a bit more with the Israeli girls on the way back to the airport and offered to take them back to their homes which was on our way home. I hope we run into them again sometime. They were real lifesavers!

Off to Turkey

We found a good travel deal for this weekend and Ken has a short week so we are out of town for the weekend. See ya later :-)

Party in Galilee

Well it's late so this will be short. We just got home from the Intel quarterly event at the Sea of Galilee (in Israel they invite the family to these events!). It was at a waterpark on the East side of the Sea. It looked like a family friendly place with lots of water pools for little kids to play in. There were also 4 big kid slides which were a lot of fun. It was very warm so it was nice to be able to take a dip in the pool and enjoy the water. We were there maybe 10 minutes and I found the only other person I knew would be there (my ex-pat friend from Evan Yadhuda) we chatted for a bit and then Ken and I decided to walk through the whole park before we got settled in one spot. At the other end of the park I heard "sarah, sarah" I thought that can't possibly be for me... wait that's in English maybe it is for me. I turned around and it was a couple that we met at our neighbors (the NY who is a Professor at the university). She and her husband were so friendly that we spent the whole evening with them and before we knew it, it was 8:00pm! She is such a talker... it was a lot of fun. There was a huge spread of food and all the drinks and icecream we needed. The music was fun and we watched a little bit of the "kid entertainment" as we waited in line for massages. It was quite the event. We tried to find my friend from Evan Yahuda, but with 2 little kids they were probably already on their way home. Bummer! It's late and time to go to bed.

A safari in the city

Saturday we made a trip to Tel Aviv to visit the African Safari Park/Zoological Center. I had heard about this place and it sounded very interesting. You drive through the first part of the safari with wild animals roaming the fields around you, then enter the zoo where you park your car and walk around the exhibits and then get in your car and finish your trip through the park with animals all around you again. It was the most amazing zoo experience I have ever had. I was wondering if we would actually be able to see any cool animals on the driving part. We hadn't even gotten to the first corner and there was an ostrich coming up the the cars looking for food. The signs clearly say "Don't feed the animals" but apparently this is one of those "suggestive rules" the Israelis and tourists don't like to follow. About 50 meters away we saw some Rhinos laying in the shade next to antelope and zebras. We passed some hippos sleeping in the water... we almost thought they were rocks that the birds were standing on in the middle of the river but we waited long enough to see a couple come up for air. There were lots of interesting birds too- flamingos, pelicans, cranes, roosters. One of the Antelope came up to our car, again looking for food. Once we reached the zoo area we parked the car and went inside. Lots of people were renting golf carts but we chose to walk. Inside the zoo were the normal suspects: Monkeys, Bears, Tigers, Girafes, Elephants, Reptiles, Parrots, Penguins, and Turtles. We also saw Hyeenas, Camels, Lamas, Racoons, Aligators, Crocodiles, and Eagles. I was so excited about my new camera and zoom lens. I think we got some excellent shots! Although I only made it through the monkeys when I got a low battery signal :-( I thought no problem, I'll just use our second spare battery that I charged when we first got here. I changed out the battery and realized it had no juice :-( We aren't sure if it's a bad battery or if it didn't get charged all the way. So I went through over half the park without my camera... I was dying. I guess we will just have to come back. It was definitely worth the entrance fee and was the most interactive zoo I've ever been too. All of the animals were up and about (probably because everybody was feeding them). It was interesting that there weren't very many exhibits with glass windows or thick netting. A lot of the monkeys just had a moat between us and them. The zoo had a lot of animals... something like 15 elephants and 5 Giraffes. They had a petting zoo too, but we didn't go in. We were getting hungry so we sat down by the Turtle family to eat our PB&J sandwiches and chips. On the way out of the park we saw more cool animals roaming the land. There were many varieties of the deer family (Gazelle, Oryz, Impala, Waterbucks, Addax, Nayala and Oryx... I'm just writing these down from the brochure based on the pictures next to them). We also saw a Gnu, Ibex, and the grand finale were the lions who were actually separated from the rest of the animals for obvious reasons. Just before we got there I looked in the distance and saw the lions were wrestling. They only let a few cars in at a time through this area, so they had calmed down and were resting in the shade by the time we reached them. I noticed they had two gun towers in this area too, to ensure safety of the visitors (and lions). There was just a small electric fence between us and the lions and there was actually an opening where the lions could go around the fence if they wanted to. It was really really cool. In fact, we reached the exit and had a chance to swing through the loop again and we decided to drive the route again to see if we could see anything different. Outside of the safari/zoo was a big public park that we decided to walk through. There were lots of families having BBQs and playing games. It reminded me of blue lake park when I was little (this was a nicer, greener park though). I can hardly wait to go again...

We finished off the day with a nice burger at the "cowboy restaraunt". My neighbors had given me a few restaraunt choices and we had yet to try any of them. Since a McD's burger would have been at least 65 shekels we went for the sit down restaraunt option. It reminded me a little of Outback, we got to throw the peanut shells on the floor :-) Our meal was served with a starter salad- carrots, red peppers, and cabbage in a "pickling" sauce. I tried it, but it was way too salty. Ken made a decent dent in it while I ate the peanuts :-) We had to choose between 200g and 300g burger. Not exactly sure how big that would be so I stuck with the 200g thinking it was probably close to a 1/4 pounder. The burger was not bad... but Ken said mine are better. It was nice not to have to cook after such a long day.

Jellyfish

Here are a couple pictures of the jellyfish we saw today. Not as big as last week, but they were still pretty big.

Going to the Border

Today we took a trip to the Israel/Lebanon border. There we visited a small tourist spot called Rosh Hanikra where you can ride a gondola, marvel at the chalky white cliffs, see the tunnel the British created during WWII to complete the connection of the railway systems between Turkey and Egypt, and explore the sea caves carved by the crashing waves. It was a beautiful day (not a cloud in the sky) and a nice drive. It was fun to watch the waves coming into the caves and crashing on the rocks. We tried to take a few pictures but had some focus issues with the camera :-(

Eeeek!

I was in the bathroom yesterday and I caught something scampering across the laundry room out of the corner of my eye. I thought... maybe I'm just seeing things and walked over to move the towel.... nope I unfortunately didn't imagine anything :-( A cockroach went flying by in the other direction. Since Ken was home I asked him to get it. He tried for a bit but it was too fast. It wasn't until just before bed I heard he didn't get it... how am I supposed to sleep now? What if I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? I think I might get the neighbor boys over to find it, seems like 10-13 yr old boys would love the thought of catching a new pet.

Chocolate creations

What a fun afternoon. My new friends (our neighbors) the Bears, invited me over for the afternoon to make chocolates with them. The kids apparently took to chocolate making a few years ago during the war when they had to stay inside and close to a bomb shelter at all times. They had recently taken a class and bought the ingredients and now had the time to perfect this confectionary hobby. They had a few different molds and had already created the ganache filling by the time I came over. After eating lunch (lentil soup- yum, schnitzel- the best I've had in Israel! and potatoes sauteed in garlic) we started on filling the chocolate molds. I was there for over 4 hours! It was messy and a lot of fun. Unfortunately I'm not sure how much chocolate I ate. They kept saying try this filling and handed me a spoon and then there were the finished products that needed to be sampled for quality assurance. I'll try to post a picture when Ken's laptop becomes available.

Computer is on!

It's been running for more than 5 minutes... I think I'm getting my hopes up that it is fixed :-)

I made cookies last night. Ken has been craving something sweet. I finally found all the ingredients at the store so I gave it a try. I was a little skeptical when I tasted the dough, but once they came out of the oven we couldn't stop eating them!!!! I tried to get Ken to take them to work to share but didn't win that battle. I put them in the freezer, maybe that way we won't eat all of them by the end of today.

Success! I found a place to park down by the market :-) It was a bit of a struggle getting downtown on the right street but I was able to find an excellent parking spot within 2 blocks. I purchased my fresh veggies, fruit, and juice and was done within 30 minutes! And it only cost 2 shekels to park vs the 11 shekels to ride the subway. I'm hoping it will be that easy next time.

As I was washing dishes last night our water turned off for no apparent reason. I decided to wait a bit and come back about an hour later. It seemed to be back on, so I started washing dishes again and then this nasty rusty brownish water came out of the spout..... uggh. I think it's better today, but I'm a little nervous about drinking water out of the tap now.

The highlight of my day yesterday was a gift of two blocks of cheese! One of the other expats are on home leave in the states and the husband brought us back some cheese!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED! We are looking forward to tacos tonight :-)

Hoping this post goes through....

Shopping

Today the neighbor kids invited me to go the grocery store with them so I could become more familiar with what to buy. It seemed really nice of them, so after swimming I went with them. I didn't realize I would be gone for 4 hours!!! We walked through the entire store and they described to me what each item was, what it compared to in the US (from their visit 4 years ago), and what dishes they make with it. It was quite a tour. It was actually fun and I'm glad I went.

Ken was out picking onions today. I guess they had a team building/community service event. I'll be anxious to hear how that went :-) It seemed really hot outside when I was out today. It's only 95 but the humidity makes it seem hotter.

Out with the Neighbors

About two weeks ago our neighbor (my grocery store friend) had offered to take us out with some of their friends (that know English) for a day. I said sure that sounds great. That was two weeks ago and on Friday I could not remember exactly what I agreed to (was it lunch or doing something specific???). So we decided to not plan anything and just go with the flow. They stopped by at 9:30am and said they were ready but that their friends (and our other neighbors, the husband works at the same place Ken does) would be ready shortly. So we waited for a while and then took off. We followed them in our car and took one of the neighbors kids with us (13 yr old boy, who can talk, talk, talk!). We ended up driving to the Carmel Forest for a hike. I wish I had known ahead of time to pack ice water! We drove around quite a bit and then found a place to park in the shade. The Shermans (grocery store neighbors) and their 3 kids - 15,13,9, the Bears (other neighbors) and their 2 kids - 17,15, and Ken & I set out for a hike. The Bears son and Father seemed to be the ones with the map and had the game plan. None of the trails were marked. I guess this was a popular biking trail and they have been there dozens of times and "know the area" quite well. Well we walked for about 2 hours up and down, all around, (seemed to be in circles) stopping frequently to look at the map. At one point we did stop and have some snacks that the Shermans brought with them. We eventually ended up walking past the same run down ranger station that we saw when we first started the hike. It was actually a nice hike, I'm just not sure if we actually made it anywhere. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun both hiking and talking in English. Both these families lived in CA for a 2 year relocation assignment about 5 years ago.


After our hike we headed off for an authentic Arabic meal in En Hod. Our reservations were for 3pm so we took the scenic route which was absolutely beautiful. At one point I thought our poor car wasn't going to make it up the steep hill that led to this lonely hilltop village. I guess until recently they didn't have electricity or running water. The restaurant was started by a family who just invited friends over for dinner. They loved the food so much, they invited their friends and pretty soon they had to build a separate building for their restaraunt. It's an interesting place. It was totally packed. It was 90 shekels a person... but it was all you can eat. You don't order off a menu. They just bring you a 15 course meal and you eat what you'd like. No soft drinks, only water and juice (squeezed from dates... it tasted a little like bubble gum to me). So the 11 of us sat down and they brought pita bread with all sorts of hummus and salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions). After that they kept bringing all sorts of dishes to the table... rice stuffed red peppers, kebab in a white cream sauce (kind like a small hamburger patty), rice and pot roast (my favorite!), creamed spinach, roasted chicken, creamed sauteed onions,and potato salad (not like our friend Miss Mary's!). I think Ken and I tried everything, even though towards the end I felt sick and couldn't bear to put one more bit in my mouth. I take that back I pulled the "I'm allergic" card on the Okra. Ken did make me try the chicken liver. Had we not known what it was it might have been easier to stomach. I washed it down with pita bread and water. Overall it was a fabulous experience and we were so glad our neighbors took us out. Afterwards, we went down stairs in the restaurant where there were couches and large cushions on the floor to relax and rest. Everyone down there looked like they were about to explode from such a large meal. They offered tea/coffee and a pistachio dessert. I had to pass. The whole day was really fun. The kids seemed to like us quite a bit. The Bears invited us over to their house once we arrived back home. We visited with them for a bit longer and shared a green tea slushy and coconut cornbread cake (ahh more food!). The kids really love to cook (they don't even let their mom cook dinner anymore!) and wanted to show us some of their talent. The Bears were just as nice as our other neighbors. We are so blessed to be where we are at!

A day trip to the Old City

Friday we took a drive to Jerusalem. We got started a bit later than I had planned and realized that by the time we go there, most of the museums would be closing for Shabbat (by noon or 1pm). We decided this would be our first trip just to get a lay of the land and that we can come back another weekend. It was good that we had this mindset because it took us over an hour to find a place to park! We tried a hotel and they were kind enough to tell us there was a mall across the street that was much cheaper. We drove through all 5 levels of the parking structure for about an hour looking for a spot/waiting for someone to leave... Uggh. We finally found a spot and began looking for the exit. We found the main floor rather quickly and started walking towards the Jaffa Gate. Once inside we saw a tourist shop and thought we would get a map of the old city (we just had one from the Rental car place and it wasn't very detailed). As we got closer the tourist shop was completely empty. I don't know if they were just moving in or just moved out... but we ended up with the map we had. We basically wandered around the streets trying to get our bearings and taking in all the sites. The streets were narrow and there were tons of shops on either side, each with a person saying "Come into my shop, see my stuff, you don't have to buy, just come and look". We didn't take the invitation from anybody... we just did "window shopping" as we walked through the streets. At noon the cathedral chimes were ringing. As we were walking we noticed more and more we were going against the grain to where it was near impossible to make any progress as thousands of people were headed the opposite direction not sure where... We walked down the Via dolorosa (the street where Jesus carried his cross). There are 12stations that mark significants spots along this street. It was really hard to visualize what things may have looked like 2000 years ago with all the shops and the crowds. We did stop at the church of the Holy Sepulcure. As far as I can tell, the church is supposed to mark the spot where Jesus was crucified. I only heard Italian guides and Chinese guides so we didn't get the full scoop. There were a lot of ornaments hanging from the ceiling and murals on the wall. I will try and post a few pictures. We spent the rest of our time looking for the wailing wall (which shouldn't be to hard to find right?) By the time we had left the Church of the Holy Sepulcure it seemed like a ghost town in the streets. Apparently everyone who was going somewhere made it through the city to where they needed to be and most of the shops had closed up (with all the merchandise gone, you can actually read the street signs now :-). We found a few tourists groups, but for the most part the streets were much quieter. After circling the city for an hour we did finally find the wailing wall. What an interesting place to be. It was divided into two sections men/women. There were lots of people standing very close to the wall with their heads buried in their Bibles. Many people were writing notes of prayer and sticking them in the cracks in the wall. Quite an experience.
After finding the wall, the heat was getting to us so we decided to call it a day and try to find where we parked. On our way out of town we found a nice park and stopped to eat our picnic lunch. I didn't put any mayo on the sandwiches this time so they were dry but edible. It was a long drive home and we slept hard that night.

Happy July 4th

We hope you are able to enjoy a nice BBQ and firework show on our behalf. We are sad to miss out on the Hillsboro parade and spending time with family and friends. Please eat something really yummy for us. I did go to the grocery store and get some over priced hamburger buns so that we could have hamburgers (made on the gas stove), chips and watermelon. Enjoy the long weekend!!!!

A night out

After such a long, busy week we decided to take the night off and go to a movie. We were thinking about the Indiana Jones movie (mostly due to the fact that was the only picture we could recognize at the box office) but it started at 10:15pm and it was 7pm. So we asked what movies were starting now or in the next half hour or so. The gal mentioned a few (most we have not ever heard of) and then said something about the Hulk. So after confirming the movie would be in English (Hebrew subtitles) we thought why not... and bought two tickets. The gal told us we would be in row 5 seats 4&5. Assigned seating??? Strange. When we got inside there were plenty of seats so we sat where we wanted (didn't ever become a problem :-) We sat there for a couple minutes and then heard a doorbell (ding, dong) sound. 1 minute later we heard it again. Everybody around us seemed to think this was normal. After one more bell, the movie began. I guess it was a warning bell in case anyone was in the lobby getting popcorn. About an hour and half into the movie the screen flashed something in Hebrew and we heard the door bell again. Yep. Intermission time. They stopped the movie for about 15 minutes and after a warning bell, restarted the movie. It was quite an experience.

Something to be thankful for

On Tuesday I headed to visit a gal who is also here with her husband (she has a 2 & 4 yr old as well). They plan to be here for a year and they are from Hillsboro. I had the best time swapping "moving to Israel" stories ,traded ideas about what to make for dinner, and lamented the price of things here. Actually I just stole her ideas for dinner... she's been here since March and has had more time to come up with ideas. It was her first day with both kids in summer school so we enjoyed a nice quiet house until lunch time. For lunch we decided to head to IKEA. Yep, they have one here, and I asked her if they have their swedish meatballs. Mmmmmm. Probably my second best meal here in Israel (now you know how good I cook :-) Anyway, we had a terrific day. I was there till about 3pm when it was time to head back and pick Ken up from work. Oh yes... and the thing I was most thankful for (beyond the wonderful day with someone who knew exactly where I was coming from) was that they have experienced lizards, cockroaches and even a snake! in there house on a intermittent basis!!!!! Thankfully we haven't seen any of those... and I now have an incentive for keeping the screen door shut!