Purim Shenanigans

So today we had our big Purim party at the Ulpan. I walked in this morning to see everybody wearing funny hats that our teacher had passed out. We had studied for a bit and she explained some stuff in the context of Purim. Then, as we approached our first break, a three-member klezmer band playing Purim songs interrupted our class. The entire school emptied out in to the courtyard to dance, and I made time to taste the assorted Homentaschen that had been laid out for us. I also made sure to make a few L’Chaims with some people from my class with perhaps the worst sweet kosher wine I’ve ever tasted. Being the idiot that I am, I left my camera at home so I’m linking to my classmate Martha’s flickr site where I noticed she posted some pics.

I’ve really been looking forward to Purim here because I’ve heard that it’s a real good time. At any rate I’m curious and that makes everything seem more interesting. So far the costumes people have been wearing seem to be outlandish combinations of wigs and hats and strange clothing. They don’t seem to be dressing up as anything specific, rather instead they just put together as many clashing colors and accessories as possible. I’m not sure if Israeli’s enjoy dressing up as political figures but if they do I’m sure I’d see a lot of Esterina Tartmans.

Tartman is a Yisrael Beiteinu MK who was recently appointed Tourism Minister. She has been featured all over the Israeli media recently and has been labeled a racist for comments she made about an Arab MK and for the fact that she is part of Yisrael Bietienu. YB is not highly regarded in Israel’s media and this hasn’t helped Tartman much. The fact the she apparently lied on her CV and invented both a BA and an MA from Bar-Ilan isn’t helping her much either.

On metrics, wieght loss and shawarma

So recently Tafat and I have been making a concerted effort to keep track of most measurements in their international forms, that is, using the metric and centigrade scales. I actually prepared myself for it before we left Los Angeles by switching the thermometer in my car over to centigrade. It took a while but now I feel fairly comfortable seeing the temperatures in centigrade. I still have to do a small calculation in my head, especially when using the oven, but I feel as though the hardest part is over.

We’ve also taken to measuring things in centimeters and meters simply because it doesn’t help to know that a room is twelve feet across if your trying to fit something that’s six meters wide. Everything here is in centimeters so its obviously sink or swim. Since we don’t drive, we haven’t really had to deal with kilometers.

Kilograms, however, are another story. The scale we have in our bathroom lists are weight in kilograms. All this tells me is whether my weight is moving up or down. Inevitably after seeing my weight I use my laptop to do the conversion to pounds.

What I do know is that I’ve lost weight. Seven kilo to be specific, I’ll let you figure that one out. Tafat and I were actually concerned about my weight loss when we realized how much I had lost.

The scary thing is that I haven’t really been trying. I have been doing an incredible amount of walking here, well at least incredible when compared to the negligible amount I did in Los Angeles, so I guess that explains most of it. But I haven’t really consciously changed my eating habits so it was surprising to see how much I’d gone down. I hadn’t wanted to lose a few pounds that were lingering around my midsection but I never really thought about this much.

Tafat and I were both concerned that I had lost some muscle as well as fat so I decided to try and stem the tide. I think this is the first time since high school that I’ve thought about what I’m eating in order to gain weight. I’m focusing on increasing my protein intake since that should hopefully help build muscle. The funny thing is that the first thing that crossed my mind was that I should eat more shawarma. It’s everywhere, its cheap, its kosher, its delicious. I never thought I would say this, but as part of my diet I’m actually trying to increase my shawarma intake.

I dont think we'll see this on the Disney Channel

I saw this on Jewlicious and I had to post it. The one thing I find interesting in this video is the total absence of the word "Jew" Hmmm....

Transplants and others

I recently interviewed Martha, who is in my class at Ulpan, for an article I wrote for the IJC. She posted our e-mail exchange on her blog and it's really interesting and worth checking out. I actually really dig her blog and I feel that she has a very fresh perspective on things here that isn't loaded with the usual emotional and political baggage.

Anyway, I've been a little sick lately but I think I'm almost over it. Hopefully I'll have a chance today since I skipped class to catch up on my homework, which I've been neglecting.

I've been thinking about what kind of commentary I could provide on the political situation here of late. Things have actually been pretty stagnant. Well, that's if you consider the steady stream of resignations of corruption allegations that compromises the current Israeli political reality stagnant. What does it mean that every week in class we get to practice the Hebrew word for "resign" because yet another leader has been forced to quit because of some scandal.

Things with the neighbors have been pretty stagnant as well. As I figured the Palestinian unity deal hasn't changed the situation one iota. There was supposedly a summit held here that was supposed to be a big deal. But apparently so little actually happened that they didn't even bother to have press conference afterwards.

But it's my opinion that there's always good news. And just to prove it.

Nasrallah's Web ...

I noticed this video on the Memri blog recently. It features Hassan Nasrallah proclaiming that Israel is weaker than a spiders web. If I were Israel I would thank Nasrallah for two reasons.

Spider-silk is one of the strongest materials on Earth, so being compared to a spider web actually is a compliment to Israel. Secondly, this gaff proves that Nasrallah is nothing more than a bumbling idiot, an idiot who pushed his people into a pointless war they didn't want or need.

From Wikipedia:

Spider silk is a fibre secreted by spiders. Spider silk is a remarkably strong material; the strongest naturally-occurring fiber known[citation needed]. Its tensile strength is comparable to that of high-grade steel — according to Nature (see reference below), spider silk has a tensile strength of roughly 1.3 GPa, while one source [1] lists a tensile strength for one form of steel at 1.65 GPa. However, spider silk is much less dense than steel; its ratio of tensile strength to density is perhaps 5 times better than steel — as strong as Aramid filaments, such as Twaron or Kevlar. In fact, a strand of spider silk long enough to circle the earth would weigh less than 16 ounces[citation needed] (less than 460 grams).

Lazy Weekend

So I thought I might share what a typical weekend is like for us here in Israel. Of course the weekend here is Friday and Saturday, Sunday is the first day of the week and a regular weekday.

Usually Tafat and lay around a lot on Friday, until we finally roll out of bed and go do something. Often, we go down to the Shuk to some shopping, or go to the mall or something. But I always end up spending some time cooking Shabbat dinner.


The apron I'm wearing, which was a gift from Marsha, has an important message for Tafat.


Like I posted before, dinner turned out delicious (this time). Hopefully soon, I'll figure out how to make Bubbie's Chicken Poprikash. On Friday we also went to a nice Kabalat Shabbat service. It's a very modern service and there are a lot of young English speakers who attend so I feel like I have my bearings there.

On Saturday our big plan was to eat a light lunch and then go to Max Brenner for dessert. Max Brenner is this very odd dessert restaurant that presents a very unique image. I don't think people want to eat there because the food is so spectacular, but rather because it feels like your doing something important when you're there. Well, it's also hard to screw up chocolate if you ask me.

Afterwards Tafat and I just kind of wandered around the city burning off the fondue we had just consumed. I took a bunch of pictures that I'm going to use in a post later on. We ended up chilling out near the Suzanne Dallal Center, which is dance center and theater. It's really beautiful there and lots of people were relaxing enjoying the nice weather.

The more things change ...

As Shabbat goes out the noise of the city starts back up. Even though Tafat and I are well into are third month here in Israel, I'm still surprised by how quiet it gets here in Tel Aviv on Shabbat. Tel Aviv is very secular and yet even here it is impossible not to feel Shabbat.

With a new week beginning I look around and see that some interesting things have transpired. Over the weekend there were some clashes in Jerusalem concerning the construction that is going on near the Temple Mount. Stones being thrown, rubber bullets being fired, tear gas ... sounds about right.

Additionally the Palestinian unity talks held in Mecca concluded with an agreement between Fatah and Hamas. However, seeing as how Hamas continues to reject Israel and everything that it is required to do by the international community I don't really see how this makes a bit of difference.

In a bit of positive news I cooked a wonderful pot-roast for Shabbat dinner. It was tender and delicious. Here's a rundown of the ingredients.

Beef Shoulder - about a half kilo.
Tomato paste - about one can or small containers worth
Onion and garlic - goes without saying
Red wine - about as much as it took to give you a buzz when you were 14
water
patience
general spice mix, a little paprika, cumin, pepper, tiny bit of cinnamon
and the last and most important ingredient - a peaceful Shabbat

Hope everybody has a good week

You know you want it

So I know I'm a little late on this one but I was sort of on a blog hiatus back there. Anyway as the whole world knows by now Apple has introduced the PADD, sorry iPhone to the world. If you haven't seen the keynote video you should really check it out.

I have mixed thoughts on this. I think the device is amazing, especially its web-surfing ability. But the price is problematic. I think that this is a great demonstration of what most people will be using in the near future, but for $499 and a two year contract this is not for everybody today. I'm excited by what Apple has shown they are capable of, and I know that the technology in the iPhone is going to trickle down to all sorts of other devices.

Holy Crap ... Where did the last month go?

So I realize that a month has gone by since the last real post on this blog. That makes for pretty boring reading for anyone who might have stopped by to see how we're doing, or for anyone who was directed here from some other mysterious corner of the internet. Well, what have we been up to? I'll let Tafat fill you in on all of the details of her dancing comeback but I guess I'll give everyone a brief synopsis of the last month.

1. Apartment Stuff

We have slowly but surely become adjusted to our qauint little home here in Tel Aviv. While it still isnt fully furnished, the necessary items are on the way. All of the little details though seem to be squared away. Oddly enough while Tafat and I had some expected problems setting up our internet and phone lines the process was much smoother than I thought is was going to be. I had been hearing nightmare stories about customer service here, but I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness, and the helpfullness of the tech support people from Bezeq(the phone company - and in English no less!).

2. Ulpan

Starting in early January, I have been a happy student at Ulpan Gordon. While the Ulpans were designed to help new Olim (immigrants) learn Hebrew and intergrate into the country they are also available for tourists and for people with other various status in the country. I study from 8:15 AM till 12:50. I sometimes feel as our teacher crams more Hebrew words into our heads that this must be what it feels like to undergo one of those training programs in the Matrix. My Hebrew is genuinly improving and it feels weird to be one of the "good" students in a launguage class.

3. The Parents

So Barnie and George, and our cousin Louise came to visit in the middle of January. They spent a lot of time touring around the country and it seemed like they had a wonderful time. Mom is already talking about coming back later this year. It was nice to have them here so they could see that we're doing well and to make us feel a little less far from home. We shlepped them across Tel Aviv and tried to show them as much as we could in the few days that they were in town. We also were able to meet up with Miri and Shlomo in Haifa, and Tafat's aunt Nadine in Jerusalem for two pleasant dinners.

4. Internship

Last week I started an internship at an Israeli newspaper in their English internet section. My first week was very busy but it feels good to have a full schedule again. Hopefully I'll be able to write something and have it posted on the website or maybe even printed in the paper.

I also wanted to post photos and videos of random stuff here in Tel Aviv. This first video is of our street on Friday afternoon. Every Friday when it's time for Shabbat music eminates from some mysterious source and announces the Sabbath. It's usually "Shalom Aleichem," but sometimes it's other stuff.



This next one is just a simple video taken in front of the "Shuk HaCarmel" also on a Friday afternoon.



And here are some photos:


Mom and Louise





Artist Section of the Shuk


Tel Aviv Bauhaus Building


Tel Aviv Beachfront

Were Just Fine

I figure somebody is going to hear about the bombing in Eilat, get paranoid and worry about us. Were fine and Eilat is like four hours from here in case anyone doesn't know.

Some Stuff ...

Are we moved in ...??? We'll I guess the answer to that question would have to be yes. We have all our stuff here and we also have the new refrigerator here, we have our bed and the little furniture that we own right now. So yes, I guess we are moved in. We still have quite a few touches to add to this place before it feels like home, but that's what it is right now all the same, this is our home.

---

Yesterday was interesting. Late last night while we were still at Miri and Shlomo's Tafat called me downstairs in her mischievous little voice because she said she wanted to tell me something. She looked at me and happily asked me if I knew what day it was.

"Monday?" I said.

"It's Christmas," she said enthusiastically. "I had no idea, isn't that great!"

If you aren't aware, my wife is somewhat of a grinch. I had actually noticed what day it was and also it's conspicuous absence from the television, stores and basically every other aspect of life. Christmas eve and Christmas day passed almost invisibly through this country.

---

It's raining. I'm supposed to be happy about it cause it's good for the country and the farms and the Kineret and all that stuff. But its really been pouring out. I was running around out there looking for an ATM to get some cash to pay for our new fridge. I got completely drenched, I mean soaked. We keep saying we need umbrellas but it starting to get ridiculous.

---

Random Israeli Politics Posting:

PM Olmert has just approved a plan to improve the lives of the Palestinians in the West Bank. Apparently this plan is aimed at helping PA President Abbas gain some popularity. Personally, I think if Israel declared war on him, that would be the best way to hero status on the Arab street.

One of the main features of the plan, as noted by Ha'aretz, is the removal of several checkpoints from throughout the West Bank.

Olmert approved the plan Monday, which, among other gestures, includes the removal of 27 roadblocks across the West Bank.

Following a meeting between the prime minister, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and several other senior defense officials, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said the prime minister accepted all of Peretz's proposals for easing restrictions.

"The prime minister directed that restrictions be eased immediately for the Palestinian population in order to strengthen moderate elements and implement the agreements and understandings that were achieved [at his meeting with Abbas]," the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.

Normally, I wouldn't pay to much attention to this story. It's not that I don't care, its just that these types of "goodwill" gestures never produce any goodwill whatsoever. But this time the situation is very different because I'm here in Israel. Those roadblocks are supposed to help protect me. But now whoever might want to do me harm has 27 fewer roadblocks to worry about. Well, maybe it will work, this time.

We Did a Little Dance When ...

... we found an apartment in Tel Aviv!!!!

After watching Shlomo have a long discussion about the contract and the apartment in Hebrew, with me standing there understanding none of it, the owners went upstairs and printed new versions of the contract for us to sign. We did the deal and we'll be moving in next week.

The apartment seems great. Its in a great location, on a quite street, but close to the center of the city. It's a renovated apartment in a beautiful building. It's a little pricey but I think its worth it.

When Tafat and I got back to Haifa we did an idiotic little celebratory dance and started thinking about all the details we have to iron out before we can move in.

The Official "We're in Israel Post"

I guess since we've been here almost two and a half weeks its time to confirm that Tafat and I are here in Israel. I'll try and run through the last two and a half weeks as best I can to let everyone know what the experience has been like.

After a long flight to London, and a very pleasant extended lay over spent walking around in the city, and then another shorter flight to Tel Aviv, we finally landed at the new terminal in Ben-Gurion Airport. The name of the project to build the new terminal was "Ben-Gurion 2000" which is unfortunate since it didn't open until the end of 2004. At any rate it's really impressive, it's beautiful, clean and very modern looking. It's certainly far more impressive than the terminal was the last time I came here. It's also fairly big. Tafat and I walked for quite a while before we got from our gate to passport control. It's not Minneapolis or Detroit big, but for such a small country to have such a big airport strikes me as some form of compensation.

We were met warmly at the airport by our surrogate Israeli mother Miri. She has been taking extremely good care of us and has kept us well fed. In the states the stereotype of the Jewish mother is someone who is constantly feeding you and taking care of you. In Israel, a country full of Jewish mothers, that stereotype is reserved for Polish mothers. Miri is the quintessential Polish mother. When we got to Haifa Tafat met Miri's husband Shlomo who has been extremely busy with his business the whole time we've been here. Shlomo is also in many ways a good example of the eccentric Israeli some people have pictured in their minds. His favorite pastime is to lament all the foods he can't eat because of the special diet he's on to lower his blood-pressure.

Tafat and I spent our first week in the country slowly recuperating from lingering jet-lag, running a few errands here and there with Miri and getting a feel for Haifa where we've been staying. We also took a very short trip to Tel Aviv to get a feel for the city in which we'll be living. Tel Aviv is everything I thought it would be. That is to say, its a very eclectic, very urban, somewhat run-down and dirty, yet completely appealing city. Being in Tel Aviv is frustrating because it's really not a pretty city yet it has the potential to be a beautiful city. Its a city badly in need of some paint and plaster, but where the architecture is at times stunning and also stunningly bad. Tafat and I are excited to be living there because in many ways it is the antithesis of LA - you can walk almost everywhere and many people don't even own a car.

Our first weekend here was wonderful since it featured a guest appearance by Miri's grandson. Her son and daughter-in-law were also here but the rule, as it is at my parents house as well, is that the grandchild is the star.

With our second week here we began our apartment search, and its been keeping us busy since then. Finding an apartment in Tel Aviv is tricky because you have to keep track of several factors including price, the apartment itself, the location, the noise ... Ok, maybe it's just as tricky here as everywhere else but where you're right in the thick of it it seems really hard. Maybe it's so difficult because really nice apartment seem so few and far between.

We took a break from apartment hunting last week to go to Jerusalem to visit Tafat's aunt Nadine. She is a fascinating woman and her mannerisms really reminded me of Tafat's mother. She also showed me how to make real Turkish coffee and I can see this quickly becoming a new hobby for me. Nadine took Tafat and I (well it was really for me) on a tour of the city. She took us to Tafat's old neighborhood and Tafat gave me a tour of where she grew up. It was really nice to see where she spent her childhood because it can really tell you a lot about a person.

Since then it's been a lot if trips to Tel Aviv on the train, mixed in with a little bit of shopping here and there. We also both got a kick out of going to a kosher hamburger joint in the mall in Tel Aviv. This should seem perfectly obvious that in a Jewish country it will be a lot easier to find kosher food, but all the same it made us both smile.

I would love to show you pictures of where we've been. Unfortunately my digital camera had a bit of an accident and it is no longer working. I'm not going to describe exactly how it happened but suffice it to say that is was a very "Jonah" moment, or in other words - stupid. But fortunately a replacement should be here in about a month, hopefully.

And ... well ... that's about it.

Where We're At ... Haifa

Just so you know ......

You Know You're in a Jewish Country When ...

... the Supermarkets are filled with Kosher meat and products but you have to go looking for a speciality store to find shrimp, lobster or pork.

... the weekend starts on Friday and ends on Saturday. Sunday is the first day of the work week.

... the cute, sentimental add for the cellphone company features an adorable little boy, whose Sufganyot (doughnuts served during Hanuka) stand isn't drawing any customers, until his mother snaps a picture of him on her cell phone and send it out as a text message to all her friends.

... all of the stores in the mall have Mezuzahs on the door.

... you walk past a trendy shoe store on the street and look inside to find a giant picture of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.

... the graffiti is meant to help bring the Messiah.

... there's a Synagogue at the bus station.

We're Leaving on a Jet Plane

We're leaving for Israel on Friday evening. Basically in a little less than 48 hours. Blogging has been light lately as Tafat and I have been spending a lot of time making lots of last minute preparations, packing, running errands and spending alternating periods of time panicking and feeling overwhelmed. I take a great deal of comfort in knowing that when we land in Ben Gurion we'll have a very welcoming and helpful reception from our interim Israeli mother.

But even though were gonna have a very comfortable place to stay once we land I don't want us to get too comfortable there. I really want to get to Tel Aviv but I know that finding a place there is going to be huge challenge. I've been hearing nightmare stories about the total lack of apartments there and its got me worried. Several friends have said that its almost as hard to find an apartment in Tel Aviv as it is to find a date in Los Angeles.

At any rate I'm sure were gonna have lots to say when we get there. I always thought this blog would be a useful tool to communicate with everybody while were in Israel and that was one of the main reasons for starting it. But I always have a lot to say and I've been searching for the right soap box for a while now. But I hope not to opine to much and bore all of you with my rantings.

But now is not the time to start ranting. My sister and brother-in-law are on their way here with the kids in tow. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and we want to spend our time saying goodbye. We leave Friday but we don't land until Sunday. About ten of those hours will be spent in London on an extended layover. We probably wont be truly settled for a while but I'll do everything I can to keep everyone up to date while were in limbo.

See ya on the flip side.

We're Back ... and we're not happy!!!

So Tafat and I just got back from Hawai'i today after a wonderful two week honeymoon. Sorry for not blogging the last two weeks but I had more pressing matters like going to the beach and surfing and all of these other important things. Anyway the hard work can now begin as we get ready for our move to Israel. Pictures of Hawaii will follow shortly. Suffice it say that Tafat and I had a wonderful time and were not pleased to be back in Los Angeles.

See Ya Later

Today is my last day at StandWithUs. Iv'e learned a lot in the two and a half years I've been working here. A lot about the world and working and also a lot about Israel. It sounds cliche but I've also learned a great deal about myself, about my strengths and weakness and how I act in a day-to-day work environment. In many ways this was my first real job in the sense of showing up and going to an office on a completely regular schedule. I'm sure that I'm not completely done with SWU considering I'll be doing some work for them in Israel and also working the student conference in a few weeks, but I don't know if I'll ever be back to a regular everyday schedule here.

Today we had a lunch as sort of a going away gathering for me. It made things real in a whole new way. Sitting there at lunch it really hit me that in about a month I'll be moving to a country where I don't speak the language, don't have a full time job lined up, and where I don't have an actual residence waiting for me. I should be terrified and in many ways I am. However, I know that I need to do this. I need to go and figure out for myself what this Jewish state business is really all about. Maybe its a brialliant idea or maybe its crazy. But its my idea and I'm running with it.

Technorati Tags: StandWithUs Israel

I Think He Had a Good Time in Israel

If you search YouTube for "Tel Aviv" or "Israel" you're bound at one point to come across some videos of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team. One player in particular stands out in those clips and is even the main subject of several of them. Anthony Parker played for Tel Aviv for five seasons and helped them to two championships while helping himself to two MVP awards. He recently signed with the Toronto Raptors but he's still gushing about his former residence.

Now he has an appreciation for a part of the world many find confusing, complex and incomprehensible.

"A lot of my close friends and family have been over to visit and they had one mindset going in but certainly they were completely the opposite leaving," he said.

"It's a shame that that part of the world is portrayed in the news the way it is. You see it as a war zone instead of the beautiful part of the world it is.

He'll even be wearing number 18 as a homage to his fans in Israel.

UC Irvine is a Crazy Place

I stopped over at Concerned UCI Student today for the second time. I took a good look around today and found it really interesting so I'm adding the site to my blogroll. I've been spending a good deal of time at UCI over the last 20 months working for StandWithUs so I can understand why 'Concerened UCI Student' is ... well ... concerned. In fact I was down there earlier this month filming everybody's favorite Israel hater Amir Abdel Malik Ali. If you want to see the video I'm posting it below. By the way listen till the end to hear a brilliant question from someone in the audience ;).

Concerned also linked to some of the cartoons from the "Iran Holocaust Cartoon Contest". I think these cartoons are the perfect pick-me-up for when your feeling down on a rainy day, so go check them out.

Amir Abdel Malik Ali at UC Irvine: