Monday-Waking up and seeing several teenage boys staring at me through the window is probably one of the more disconcerting things that has ever happened to me. Especially considering that my 'pajamas' are my boxers. I am quite ready for that experience to never be repeated. The reason this happened is that Donnie was paying them to take about 16 cubic meters worth of dirt and rock out of the hole in the wall, up 56 stairs, and dump it. Quite the arduous task that I am quite glad I did not have to be a part of. Instead, I got on a bus for my (for me) required day trip to Yerushalayim.
To start: I friggin LOVE that city. I'm not nearly as familiar with it as I was once, but there are two reasons for this. 1) its been 12 years since my daily wanderings through the city. 2) so much has changed in jtown since I've been there I hardly recognize anything anymore. Course, that might also be due to my notoriously bad memory and the 12 year lack of familiarity. The point of my ramblings is that I so very much missed her, and I was super glad to be back. Wandering down Rechov Yaffo, while very much changed, including the new trolley, still smacked of old familiarity and it was nice to be strolling her sides again. The (also required) visit to machaneh yehuds was as awesome as always. My favorite call of all the "alo!"s had to be the "alo alo! Yesh leechy!". Hysterical, and for that alone I would have been glad to have made the trip to town. Then there was the old Israeli couple talking to each other in Hebrew, which included the gem: "don't tell me what I want!". Needless to say I was unable to refrain from laughing aloud. Fortunately machaneh yehuda is so loud, and they were busy arguing, that they didn't notice.
No trip to the area of machaneh yehuda is complete without a visit to Marzipan. For those of you unfamiliar with the allure of the crackfood known as Marzipan, you need to take steps to correct this. Immediately. There are very few things on this planet that taste quite so good as Marzipan rugalach. They are simply that good. Even with awareness of my tendency to exaggerate, you still need to take my word on this one. If these past few sentence have been met with a blank stare on your part then you need to take swift steps to correct this serious lack in your life. Go fix it.
I imagine it would be redundent to say this at this point, but i heartily enjoyed my visit to this shop. Simply standing the and getting drunk on the fumes was good, but it came time to partake of this sweet nector of the gods. When I asked the proprietor for 1 he looked at me like I was insane. "1 kilo?" "Nope. Just 1". After a few more minutes of arguing I eventually got just one. It tasted even better than usual, because it tasted like victory.
Following my immensely enjoyed visit to the upper parts of Yerushalayim and the shuk, it came time to head to the midrachov to meet up with some folks. My first visit my was with my old and dear friend Yael. I have known her for 28 years, but i haven't had the opportunity to see her since she moved to Israel 5 years ago. In a world where I find that people are changing daily, and rarely for the better, it was nice to see the same old Yael. I have missed her quite a bit. I spent some time hanging out with her and her sister in law, and then went to reacquaint myself with the center of town before going to meet some other friends. I had a near earth shattering experience when I went to the cafe egon hookah bar and it was closed (its a 24 hour place to those unfamiliar). Even with the many changes I'd seen already, the thought of this centerpiece of my post high school time in Israel, filled with many many fond memories, being closed was earthshaking.
After finding out that the other folks I was supposed to meet up with had baied on me, I contented myself with my wanderings, and seeing the city I love. I went back towards the area of froyo, and ended up striking up a conversation with these two girls selling hair wraps, and other assorted stringy type stuff. They were quite cool, and I got some very interesting pictures of their wares. I love chatting with random strangers.
As much fun as my day in jtown was, it became time to head back to meet my friend for a ride home. After making my way to Givat Shaul to meet Shachar I found him in his usual spot: hanging outside his office chatting with one of the local shopkeepers. Apparently being the branch manager of a bank isn't that tough? Rafi (the shopkeeper) apparently has a brother who is an event planner. Rafi immediately put me on the phone with his brother to help me find work. I'll say it a million more times, but I LOVE Israel. And Israelis. I left my card and they said they would be in touch. After this we headed back to the moshav. To understand what happened next you have to know the geography of Yerushalayim. For those who do know, I went from the tachana merkazit to the center of town to emek refaim to givat shaul. All by foot. I don't know the exact distances, but it wasn't less than 10-15 miles. So after a day like this that when I got home that I ate a rapid dinner, showered and collapsed.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The first weekend
So I got my quiet vacation off to a nice start by spending a quiet day at the house. Until we decided that Nataly needed to go to the koopat cholim since her stomach had now been hurting for two days straight. After spending some time there she was told she had a minor stomach bug and to go home since she would be fine. So home we went where the movie marathon continued. In addition to movies we ended up watching Israeli Golden Girls, which was hysterical, and what seems to be the Israeli version of Entourage. Chaverim shel Nir, about a real life Israeli standup comic and his friends, is soooooooo Israeli. And hysterical. I highly recommend it if you speak Hebrew. And get Israelis.
The next day I went to hang out with my brother. Hanging out with Donnie is always a trip. He's super duper religious, and his payot are now long enough to curl, but he is still a lot of fun to hang out with. I have no problem with religion, but it bothers me when people think it means they have to lose their personality in the process of becoming more religious. Thankfully Donnie is a Karl and has personality to spare.
So my handyman brother asked me to take some pictures of the various items he has built to use in both his portfolio and in his new ads he is running to get his name out more. When he came to pick me up from Shachar's I was pleasantly surprised to see a little face with curly payot sticking up to see out the rear window. We drove first to the school where Donnie is the woodshop teacher (one of his jobs) to take some pictures of stuff already built, and to take measurements for other stuff that needs to be built. Chananel helped Donnie as much as he could, including being the guy to hold the measuring tape (Needless to say the cuteness quotient was through the roof, and the firt bunch of what is likely to be many many pictures of the kids was taken). After traveling to several other work locations of Donnie's to photo we headed back to their house.
During this day of Karls Chananel had to repeatedly tell and show me that he had not forgotten what I had taught him previously, and the day was full of rocking on. Both in word and gesture. Cuteness definitely abounded. Additionally,cont there were 2 other like bundles of high spirits and energy waiting to say hi when we got back. Watching the boys play together was beyond hysterical. At one point I asked my sister in law "Leah, are they aware that they keep switching languages while they are are talking?". "Probably not" said oh so casually reminded me that while the little bilingual kids of Ramat Beit Shemesh may be an amusing novelty to me, they aren't to the many olim who live there.
A very full day of talking to and playing with the branch of Israeli Karls continued. And was awesome. Many pictures were taken of the boys who (not that this was needed for proof) showed their Karlness by continuosly mugging for the cameras and then demanding to see each picture after it was taken. At one point when I took them onto the porch to play in the mini pool and I was taking pictures of them Chananel goes "Dod Yaron, take a picture of this!" and then proceeds to dump a bucket of water on his head. It was an awesome shot. Then Yekutiel and Pitachya decided they wanted to take turns doing the same thing. Then Chananel decided to try pouring water in his ear. Then up his nose. As the good uncle I am, rather than telling him that maybe this was a bad idea, I decided to let him get some life experience. And wait for the hysterical reaction picture. Which it was indeed. But the really funny part was when he sputtered a bit, shook his head, looked at me, laughed, and then said 'zeh lo haya raayon tov (Hebrew for this was not s good idea)'. I tried not to laugh at him, and was actually successful. For like 10 seconds. He was just as amused as I was though, so all was well.
After this I spent some more time hanging out with Donnie and helping him dig in his wall. Explanation-At the time the excavations began Donnie had 3 children soon to be four. And wanted some more space in the house. So he decided to knock out a wall and start digging into the side of the hill their house is built against. This has been a rather time and energy consuming project, so I helped. We spent hours using a jackhammer style bit on one of his drills, and a mini sledgehammer, to break up a mini boulder we found enough to take the pieces out. After this day of fun but looooooong, I took a shower, ate some dinner, and then crawled into bed to collapse.
The next day I went to hang out with my brother. Hanging out with Donnie is always a trip. He's super duper religious, and his payot are now long enough to curl, but he is still a lot of fun to hang out with. I have no problem with religion, but it bothers me when people think it means they have to lose their personality in the process of becoming more religious. Thankfully Donnie is a Karl and has personality to spare.
So my handyman brother asked me to take some pictures of the various items he has built to use in both his portfolio and in his new ads he is running to get his name out more. When he came to pick me up from Shachar's I was pleasantly surprised to see a little face with curly payot sticking up to see out the rear window. We drove first to the school where Donnie is the woodshop teacher (one of his jobs) to take some pictures of stuff already built, and to take measurements for other stuff that needs to be built. Chananel helped Donnie as much as he could, including being the guy to hold the measuring tape (Needless to say the cuteness quotient was through the roof, and the firt bunch of what is likely to be many many pictures of the kids was taken). After traveling to several other work locations of Donnie's to photo we headed back to their house.
During this day of Karls Chananel had to repeatedly tell and show me that he had not forgotten what I had taught him previously, and the day was full of rocking on. Both in word and gesture. Cuteness definitely abounded. Additionally,cont there were 2 other like bundles of high spirits and energy waiting to say hi when we got back. Watching the boys play together was beyond hysterical. At one point I asked my sister in law "Leah, are they aware that they keep switching languages while they are are talking?". "Probably not" said oh so casually reminded me that while the little bilingual kids of Ramat Beit Shemesh may be an amusing novelty to me, they aren't to the many olim who live there.
A very full day of talking to and playing with the branch of Israeli Karls continued. And was awesome. Many pictures were taken of the boys who (not that this was needed for proof) showed their Karlness by continuosly mugging for the cameras and then demanding to see each picture after it was taken. At one point when I took them onto the porch to play in the mini pool and I was taking pictures of them Chananel goes "Dod Yaron, take a picture of this!" and then proceeds to dump a bucket of water on his head. It was an awesome shot. Then Yekutiel and Pitachya decided they wanted to take turns doing the same thing. Then Chananel decided to try pouring water in his ear. Then up his nose. As the good uncle I am, rather than telling him that maybe this was a bad idea, I decided to let him get some life experience. And wait for the hysterical reaction picture. Which it was indeed. But the really funny part was when he sputtered a bit, shook his head, looked at me, laughed, and then said 'zeh lo haya raayon tov (Hebrew for this was not s good idea)'. I tried not to laugh at him, and was actually successful. For like 10 seconds. He was just as amused as I was though, so all was well.
After this I spent some more time hanging out with Donnie and helping him dig in his wall. Explanation-At the time the excavations began Donnie had 3 children soon to be four. And wanted some more space in the house. So he decided to knock out a wall and start digging into the side of the hill their house is built against. This has been a rather time and energy consuming project, so I helped. We spent hours using a jackhammer style bit on one of his drills, and a mini sledgehammer, to break up a mini boulder we found enough to take the pieces out. After this day of fun but looooooong, I took a shower, ate some dinner, and then crawled into bed to collapse.
The beginning of the trip
The original plan was to write every day, but since I didn't start it till now I have some catch up to do and its going to be in batches.
I was very generously given a ride to JFK by Rudy for a 7pm flight. Meaning we left around 4pm. The reason it is generous (explanation for non NY area folk) is because driving to JFK during rush hour is more like the 10th or 15th circle of hell than just the 7th. The actual distance is maybe 20 miles, but because it is NY it can still take hours. Thankfully it only took an hour since I left late as is usual for me. I'm freaking about the time, and then we got there in plenty of time for me to catch a 730 plane. Sadface for me, I didnt think to check if the flight was on time so it was then an 830 flight. This is the point where I start worry about my connecting flight in London because there was only a 90 minute stopover to begin with, and Heathrow is HUGE. Clearly I wasn't all THAT worried because about 3 minutes after I got on the plane I was asleep. This was a condition that lasted for the duration of the flight.
Finally land in London at 810 local time, when the scheduled departure of my connecting flight was 855. Panic became the new condition. I RAN to my connecting flight which was fortunately not terribly far away. (Aside-why is it that I have never taken a flight to Israel that landed on time with any airline besides El Al? People get annoyed with El Al and Israelis, but I have personally never had a flight that landed late with them. Or on time with any other airline. Go figure). I had to go through a minor security check to get to my new gate and had a moment of complete and utter panic/horror when I realized I had lost my boarding card for the connecting flight. To my shock, the nice security lady printed me a new one and very calmly (with a hysterically thick Cockney accent) told me 'if you find the old one destroy it yeah?'. (Aside-the whole security experience at Heathrow was astoundingly relaxed for someone used to the idiots of the tsa. Is this normal in the uk?).
Thanks to the nice security lady, and the yet again late departure by British Airways, I got to the flight on time. I even had time to marvel at the size of the airport. The jetway alone took a couple minutes to walk to the plane. Or to the line of people waiting to board anyway. After boarding the plane the sleepy again overtook me and I was out for most of the second flight as well. During my brief periods of awake during the flights I noticed a marked difference from El Al. Although I must admit that the lack of hoards of Jews running amok and davening in the aisles was slightly disconcerting. BA sucks in terms of timeliness, but their planes are nice. Slightly bigger seats, certainly in better condition. Might have something to do with the above sentence.
When I arrived in Ben Gurion I was briefly confused at the intensity of my repeated questioning by security. Normally my coloring and obvious Americanness means that they barely give me a second look. My guess is that the enormous yeti beard I was rocking had something to do with it. My good friends Shachar and Itay met me, and I was momentarily confused by my normally non-demonstrative sabra holding roses. Until I remembered that it was his anniversary.
Originally the plan had been that we were going to Tevaria/the Kinneret for the weekend, but I found out that was not to be. Sadface. I love it up there. Shachar, like the good guy he is, blamed himself for it because he said he was cranky in the heat (I know this to me accurate, although I'm not sure how someone THAT black (half Iraqi, half Indian) can do so poorly in the heat). I found out when we got back to the house that it was because his wife Nataly wasn't feeling well as she had had a bad stomach ache since the previous evening. I very much enjoyed a quiet evening at the house watching movies with Shachar, Nataly, and Gal. Joined a bit later by Itay and Inbal.
Watching movies in Israel has not yet ceased to amuse me, because I love the Hebrew subtitles. Whether they are accurate or not has no meaning because they are awesome either way. Either I learn some more Hebrew, or I get to laugh at the absurdity of the bad translation. Win either way. As it started getting late I started making my way to bed. I took the always glorious post transatlantic travel shower and was then shown how to use the AC in my room. I declined to use it because it was an absolutely beautiful night, and after 15 years of visiting them the sound of the jackals screaming in the hills is a comforting sound to me. I finally ended up passing out at around 430am. You could say that it was jetlag, but lets be honest folks: its not jetlag if I always go to bed at that hour
I was very generously given a ride to JFK by Rudy for a 7pm flight. Meaning we left around 4pm. The reason it is generous (explanation for non NY area folk) is because driving to JFK during rush hour is more like the 10th or 15th circle of hell than just the 7th. The actual distance is maybe 20 miles, but because it is NY it can still take hours. Thankfully it only took an hour since I left late as is usual for me. I'm freaking about the time, and then we got there in plenty of time for me to catch a 730 plane. Sadface for me, I didnt think to check if the flight was on time so it was then an 830 flight. This is the point where I start worry about my connecting flight in London because there was only a 90 minute stopover to begin with, and Heathrow is HUGE. Clearly I wasn't all THAT worried because about 3 minutes after I got on the plane I was asleep. This was a condition that lasted for the duration of the flight.
Finally land in London at 810 local time, when the scheduled departure of my connecting flight was 855. Panic became the new condition. I RAN to my connecting flight which was fortunately not terribly far away. (Aside-why is it that I have never taken a flight to Israel that landed on time with any airline besides El Al? People get annoyed with El Al and Israelis, but I have personally never had a flight that landed late with them. Or on time with any other airline. Go figure). I had to go through a minor security check to get to my new gate and had a moment of complete and utter panic/horror when I realized I had lost my boarding card for the connecting flight. To my shock, the nice security lady printed me a new one and very calmly (with a hysterically thick Cockney accent) told me 'if you find the old one destroy it yeah?'. (Aside-the whole security experience at Heathrow was astoundingly relaxed for someone used to the idiots of the tsa. Is this normal in the uk?).
Thanks to the nice security lady, and the yet again late departure by British Airways, I got to the flight on time. I even had time to marvel at the size of the airport. The jetway alone took a couple minutes to walk to the plane. Or to the line of people waiting to board anyway. After boarding the plane the sleepy again overtook me and I was out for most of the second flight as well. During my brief periods of awake during the flights I noticed a marked difference from El Al. Although I must admit that the lack of hoards of Jews running amok and davening in the aisles was slightly disconcerting. BA sucks in terms of timeliness, but their planes are nice. Slightly bigger seats, certainly in better condition. Might have something to do with the above sentence.
When I arrived in Ben Gurion I was briefly confused at the intensity of my repeated questioning by security. Normally my coloring and obvious Americanness means that they barely give me a second look. My guess is that the enormous yeti beard I was rocking had something to do with it. My good friends Shachar and Itay met me, and I was momentarily confused by my normally non-demonstrative sabra holding roses. Until I remembered that it was his anniversary.
Originally the plan had been that we were going to Tevaria/the Kinneret for the weekend, but I found out that was not to be. Sadface. I love it up there. Shachar, like the good guy he is, blamed himself for it because he said he was cranky in the heat (I know this to me accurate, although I'm not sure how someone THAT black (half Iraqi, half Indian) can do so poorly in the heat). I found out when we got back to the house that it was because his wife Nataly wasn't feeling well as she had had a bad stomach ache since the previous evening. I very much enjoyed a quiet evening at the house watching movies with Shachar, Nataly, and Gal. Joined a bit later by Itay and Inbal.
Watching movies in Israel has not yet ceased to amuse me, because I love the Hebrew subtitles. Whether they are accurate or not has no meaning because they are awesome either way. Either I learn some more Hebrew, or I get to laugh at the absurdity of the bad translation. Win either way. As it started getting late I started making my way to bed. I took the always glorious post transatlantic travel shower and was then shown how to use the AC in my room. I declined to use it because it was an absolutely beautiful night, and after 15 years of visiting them the sound of the jackals screaming in the hills is a comforting sound to me. I finally ended up passing out at around 430am. You could say that it was jetlag, but lets be honest folks: its not jetlag if I always go to bed at that hour
Daka B'Sheket
Anyone who chooses to take the time to read this blog is probably aware of the fact that, normally thankfully to one who works freelance, my life is a non-stop rush. Go to this wedding, go to that wedding. Go to more gigs. Edit pictures. Gogogogogogogogooooo!
As many of you are also aware this is a lifestyle that suits my personality perfectly, but every once in a while it just becomes too much and I need to take a step back to regain some measure of clarity. And that is where my taking a month of vacation to go to Israel to visit family and friends, and get some much needed rest, came in.
Originally I was planning on traveling hither and yon. To this country to that country all over Israel. And then I remembered it might do to take some time to actually relax during the time I have to actually do that. I thought that it might also be fun to record what was going to happen during a month of utterly Israeli balagan (and long after as well), but I just could not think of a proper name for such an undertaking.
Thankfully Jake came to the rescue, as usual, but unlike the norm he is going to get credit for his brilliant idea. There is so much insanity in life on a daily basis, especially for me, but I am sure for many of you as well. To take the time to find some peace in the midst of life's craziness is not just awesome, but often times absolutely necessary. Even when my favorite form of relaxation is often additional, albeit voluntary, insanity, I still need those calms in the storm on occasion. And thus daka b'sheket (a minute in silence) was created. Take the time to breathe. Take the time to enjoy the beauty in life. Take some pictures and appreciate the awesome all around. Its pretty sweet
Thankfully Jake came to the rescue, as usual, but unlike the norm he is going to get credit for his brilliant idea. There is so much insanity in life on a daily basis, especially for me, but I am sure for many of you as well. To take the time to find some peace in the midst of life's craziness is not just awesome, but often times absolutely necessary. Even when my favorite form of relaxation is often additional, albeit voluntary, insanity, I still need those calms in the storm on occasion. And thus daka b'sheket (a minute in silence) was created. Take the time to breathe. Take the time to enjoy the beauty in life. Take some pictures and appreciate the awesome all around. Its pretty sweet
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)