In case the world didn't know - let me tell them again: I love my family! From the closest to the most distant. Today I got a wonderful package in the mail: a birthday party in a box!
I'm not sure if Aunt Sandy and Uncle Phil tacked that name onto their clever idea before they shipped the package - but that is surely what it is. What was inside? All the makings of a birthday party! A cake, frosting, sprinkles, candles, birthday themed plates and napkins AND BALLOONS!! (Plus some of our favorite coffee and some delicious smelling candles!) Aunt Sandy and Uncle Phil - Thank you so so much!
The birthday in a box couldn't have come at a better time. Summer is when most of the new people move here and start work - so that means lots of new friends! And friends means a party for me :) We've invited all of our friends...well acquaintances..okay - everyone we talk to sociall, to our house on Friday for my birthday. And with the Fourth of July celebrations we really don't have time to plan out a party - so this box is perfect! Now I have all of the decorations I need - just add water!
Because Israel is the size of New Jersey, our friends/colleagues are from all over the country. Some of them travel 10 minutes to work each day while others may travel 4 hours each way! Can you imagine! They literally cross borders every morning and every evening just to get to work. Talk about dedication! I'm not sure they can all make it to my party, but it should be fun either way.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Its a Small World Afterall....
At least when you are abroad with the government - then the world seems smaller. We are currently watch the World Cup (Spain vs. Hondurs - half time and I couldn't want Spain to lose more). Usually we don't watch TV unless it is the news - and even then ESPN is not a channel we frequently watch.
But because of the World Cup we are tuned in more. And though we loved AFN before (see our post on the hilarious AFN commercials) - now we really really love them...and ESPN. While the game is not going as Jen would hope, this is the best game ever - because of the commentators and the commercials.
First, the ESPN commentator took a break from babbling about how Spain "deserves" another goal (apparently smacking the Honduran in the face and purposely kicking your free kick early to draw a yellow card on the other team....), anyway - he took a break to give a shout out to the "men and women serving abroad, watching this match on AFN." !!! That is us!!! (Maybe he said "uniformed" but then it doesn't include us and I'm sure he didn't mean to leave us out.) It was exciting!
THEN!!! Another great AFN "commercial" came on, updating us on another random U.S. military action around the world. This time it was a lovely little fleet of Marine/Navy ships that made a stop in Peleliu. They talked about the history of the island and showed a few shots of the 3 ships moving across the water. And I'm pretty sure I saw a beautiful shaved head on the deck. :)
This sounds boring...right? NOT WHEN IT IS YOUR BROTHER'S SHIP!!! AFN just featured Dusty's ship!! Dusty was on TV!! Well..kind of. Okay - so I didn't see him on the deck (it was a helicopter view) - but it was his ship!!! Every time they interview a soldier, talk about a naval exercise or the Navy medics (which is surprisingly often) I rhetorically ask why it couldn't be Dusty - and they heard me! I hope they show that commercial again!
But because of the World Cup we are tuned in more. And though we loved AFN before (see our post on the hilarious AFN commercials) - now we really really love them...and ESPN. While the game is not going as Jen would hope, this is the best game ever - because of the commentators and the commercials.
First, the ESPN commentator took a break from babbling about how Spain "deserves" another goal (apparently smacking the Honduran in the face and purposely kicking your free kick early to draw a yellow card on the other team....), anyway - he took a break to give a shout out to the "men and women serving abroad, watching this match on AFN." !!! That is us!!! (Maybe he said "uniformed" but then it doesn't include us and I'm sure he didn't mean to leave us out.) It was exciting!
THEN!!! Another great AFN "commercial" came on, updating us on another random U.S. military action around the world. This time it was a lovely little fleet of Marine/Navy ships that made a stop in Peleliu. They talked about the history of the island and showed a few shots of the 3 ships moving across the water. And I'm pretty sure I saw a beautiful shaved head on the deck. :)
This sounds boring...right? NOT WHEN IT IS YOUR BROTHER'S SHIP!!! AFN just featured Dusty's ship!! Dusty was on TV!! Well..kind of. Okay - so I didn't see him on the deck (it was a helicopter view) - but it was his ship!!! Every time they interview a soldier, talk about a naval exercise or the Navy medics (which is surprisingly often) I rhetorically ask why it couldn't be Dusty - and they heard me! I hope they show that commercial again!
Monday, June 14, 2010
Filling the Calendar
The less-frequent blog posting which you may have noticed could be a sign of the following:
a.) General apathy towards posting due to a lack of reader comments
b.) Nothing blog-worthy in our life
c.) A full social calendar leaving no time for blogging
d.) We don't want to or cannot tell you what we've been up to
Answer: C.
You may have noticed in previous posts a lack of new friends in our lives...this would be accurate. Haha. This is not a bad thing as we have each other and we've done a lot of traveling and organizing of our apartment. And we have such amazing friends back home the bar is set really high. No worries, though, we have finally made a few good friends here - or we at least we've found a few people we'd like to be good friends with.
This week Katie, Charlie, Stephanie and Ben are coming over for dinner. Katie is the only other person in our office my age (the next youngest is 9 years my elder) and Stephie is fresh off the boat, also my age. While it may have seemed weird to you all that we planned a wedding in 3 months and immediately move abroad - it is the norm here. Katie and Stephanie both planned their weddings quickly and got married within a month of leaving the States for Tel Aviv (their husbands being Charlie and Ben respectively).
We've also been networking, contacting friends of friends of friends. Last week Paul met up with some friends from Georgetown, one who happened to be visiting here and one who lives here. And we went on a blind date! We met up with the brother of Paul's friend's friend. His wife is great and I'm excited for her to hang out with her again! (For those of you counting at home, she would be 5 steps removed from me. Wife, brother, friend, friend, Paul).
Also packed into our schedule was a visit to our colleagues house to hear his band play and watching the World Cup projected onto a big screen with colleagues from another office.
So you see, we've been too busy making new friends to blog about out massive tomato plants (3ft tall!), exploring the Fashion District, or making our amazing apt feel like home! Those posts will come later...
a.) General apathy towards posting due to a lack of reader comments
b.) Nothing blog-worthy in our life
c.) A full social calendar leaving no time for blogging
d.) We don't want to or cannot tell you what we've been up to
Answer: C.
You may have noticed in previous posts a lack of new friends in our lives...this would be accurate. Haha. This is not a bad thing as we have each other and we've done a lot of traveling and organizing of our apartment. And we have such amazing friends back home the bar is set really high. No worries, though, we have finally made a few good friends here - or we at least we've found a few people we'd like to be good friends with.
This week Katie, Charlie, Stephanie and Ben are coming over for dinner. Katie is the only other person in our office my age (the next youngest is 9 years my elder) and Stephie is fresh off the boat, also my age. While it may have seemed weird to you all that we planned a wedding in 3 months and immediately move abroad - it is the norm here. Katie and Stephanie both planned their weddings quickly and got married within a month of leaving the States for Tel Aviv (their husbands being Charlie and Ben respectively).
We've also been networking, contacting friends of friends of friends. Last week Paul met up with some friends from Georgetown, one who happened to be visiting here and one who lives here. And we went on a blind date! We met up with the brother of Paul's friend's friend. His wife is great and I'm excited for her to hang out with her again! (For those of you counting at home, she would be 5 steps removed from me. Wife, brother, friend, friend, Paul).
Also packed into our schedule was a visit to our colleagues house to hear his band play and watching the World Cup projected onto a big screen with colleagues from another office.
So you see, we've been too busy making new friends to blog about out massive tomato plants (3ft tall!), exploring the Fashion District, or making our amazing apt feel like home! Those posts will come later...
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Is there an elephant in here?!?
"Are you okay?" - Yes. "Do you feel safe?" - Yes. "Has anything changed?" Well, our tomato plants are massive! But that has nothing to do with what you probably think is the elephant in the room...or in this case our blog. Seeing as we write about most of the interesting things in our life it probably seems crazy to you all that we haven't written about the news here which is consuming the headlines around the world. But that is because - apart from work life this has had almost no effect on us!
What are we hearing about it? We are hearing pretty much the same stuff you are because we read the NYTimes which had a good article here. But, we are also exposed to the other side which you may not have heard in the Israeli news here. I'm not endorsing either - just showing you what we see.
What do you think? From an academic perspective there were many mistakes made by all parties involved and a lot that can be learned. And while this may seem obvious to us that the situation is complex and no party is fully innocent, the reaction of many here is "No, please tell me what Israel did wrong?!? We give them tons of aid!" or from the other side "Israel doesn't let anything into Gaza!" and "They attacked peace activists!"
Are things different there now? Not really. We still went to the market last week and bought veggies from a Jewish Israeli and bread from his Arab Israeli neighbor. The horrible Israeli drivers still cut me off on the way to work and the park was still flooded with families. The cat left footprints all over my car, our garden is growing, it is hot and we miss you all! (Work is a little more hectic, but that is it.)
Hm..So how is the weather? - No, there is no elephant in the room. All is well in Tel Aviv! You should come visit us!!!
What are we hearing about it? We are hearing pretty much the same stuff you are because we read the NYTimes which had a good article here. But, we are also exposed to the other side which you may not have heard in the Israeli news here. I'm not endorsing either - just showing you what we see.
What do you think? From an academic perspective there were many mistakes made by all parties involved and a lot that can be learned. And while this may seem obvious to us that the situation is complex and no party is fully innocent, the reaction of many here is "No, please tell me what Israel did wrong?!? We give them tons of aid!" or from the other side "Israel doesn't let anything into Gaza!" and "They attacked peace activists!"
Are things different there now? Not really. We still went to the market last week and bought veggies from a Jewish Israeli and bread from his Arab Israeli neighbor. The horrible Israeli drivers still cut me off on the way to work and the park was still flooded with families. The cat left footprints all over my car, our garden is growing, it is hot and we miss you all! (Work is a little more hectic, but that is it.)
Hm..So how is the weather? - No, there is no elephant in the room. All is well in Tel Aviv! You should come visit us!!!
Hiking the Golan: Take 2
To take advantage of the long weekend we decided to try hiking and camping in the Golan Heights again, this time with a map, a trail and designated (safe, vulture-free) campsite. While the online guide said that the hike was family friendly (read: easy) it promised spectacular views of a waterfall and beautiful flowers. The guide lied....at least in part.
We did find AMAZING views of the Sea of Galilee from about 5 miles away, gorgeous fragrant flowers in the midst of dry plains, a waterfall and more! The part it lied about was the difficulty. I don't know what kind of superhero Israeli family could hike 8.8 kilometers up the mountain, down the mountain, forge the river and not lose the oxen or the cart! (Oregon Trail?)
We were following the "red hamburger" - two short fat white lines and a red one in between. Every 10 to 20 yards a hamburger is painted on a rock or landmark to let you know where to go. After the first 15 beautiful minutes of hiking the hamburger disappears. To the right: a river. Ahead: Thick bush. To the left: a wall of boulders. Hmmm... where is that red hamburger? Ah..yes, of course. 15 feet above us on the top of the boulder pile. Climb!!
Continuing on our quest to make it to the camp site before sunset, we came upon a barbed-wire fence with a small metal door frame, with barbed-wire around the frame...and a metal bar diagonally blocking out the door. As Paul approached to try to squeeze through the small opening with his large hiking backpack, the bushes on the other side began to grunt. This was not a friendly grunt if such a thing exists, but a wild boar marking his territory type of grunt. While Paul wanted to rush in to see the boar, Jen wanted to be safe (and have time to take out the camera). Jen won, but Paul really had the better idea and all we have to show for this story is a footprint in the mud.
Continuing on, we came a 92ft deep fresh water pool! It was cold and oh so
refreshing after 2hrs of hiking. Because we knew this was coming we had prepared with propper hiking/swimming atire, allowing us to enjoy the most refreshing swim ever! A short while later the river became a little wider and suddenly fell 200 feet into another beautiful pool. The promised waterfall.
We did find AMAZING views of the Sea of Galilee from about 5 miles away, gorgeous fragrant flowers in the midst of dry plains, a waterfall and more! The part it lied about was the difficulty. I don't know what kind of superhero Israeli family could hike 8.8 kilometers up the mountain, down the mountain, forge the river and not lose the oxen or the cart! (Oregon Trail?)
We were following the "red hamburger" - two short fat white lines and a red one in between. Every 10 to 20 yards a hamburger is painted on a rock or landmark to let you know where to go. After the first 15 beautiful minutes of hiking the hamburger disappears. To the right: a river. Ahead: Thick bush. To the left: a wall of boulders. Hmmm... where is that red hamburger? Ah..yes, of course. 15 feet above us on the top of the boulder pile. Climb!! Continuing on our quest to make it to the camp site before sunset, we came upon a barbed-wire fence with a small metal door frame, with barbed-wire around the frame...and a metal bar diagonally blocking out the door. As Paul approached to try to squeeze through the small opening with his large hiking backpack, the bushes on the other side began to grunt. This was not a friendly grunt if such a thing exists, but a wild boar marking his territory type of grunt. While Paul wanted to rush in to see the boar, Jen wanted to be safe (and have time to take out the camera). Jen won, but Paul really had the better idea and all we have to show for this story is a footprint in the mud.
Continuing on, we came a 92ft deep fresh water pool! It was cold and oh so
refreshing after 2hrs of hiking. Because we knew this was coming we had prepared with propper hiking/swimming atire, allowing us to enjoy the most refreshing swim ever! A short while later the river became a little wider and suddenly fell 200 feet into another beautiful pool. The promised waterfall.
Saturday, June 5, 2010
How do you say "Namaste" in Hebrew?
As my sister-in-law Amy recently became a certified yoga and unknowingly inspired me to try it out. So yesterday I went to my first ever yoga class. 
(I'm not counting the McDonald's yoga DVD I tried once, I don't think McDonald's qualifies as yoga.)
I was supposed to walk or lightly jog a little less than a mile to get to the class and when I realized it was more like a two mile run (in 90* weather) I started to realize this may be a wee bit more difficult than I anticipated. The studio was in a basement on a very hip street and the instructor spoke English. Unlike my McDonald's DVD which is very calm and pleasant sounding, this instructor went pretty fast and sounded a bit like a depressed/bored secretary.
About 20 minutes into the class, as my friend and I are balancing like a stork on one foot with our bodies flat and perpendicular, tucking our chins down to look at our back foot, do we notice a great big beetle crawling towards our mats.
I giggle as the beetle heads the other way annoying the yoga expert in front of me. Oops. 5 minutes later he returned. I quietly tip-toed to the back of my room to grab my shoe (you do yoga barefoot) and quietly brushed the bug away from our mats, careful not to interrupt the class. WHACK! Okay - so I interrupted the class but the bug was dead. Namaste.
The class continued well and with about 20 minutes left the expert in front of me looked back - I think to make sure I was still alive as I hadn't interrupted her recently. Lucky for me the pose the instructor had just told us to do was a stretch I've been doing since 6th grade before every soccer game or practice. Who's the expert now!?! Well she trumped me five minutes later when everyone was standing on their head and balancing on their elbows...that was a bit beyond my skill level.
(I'm not counting the McDonald's yoga DVD I tried once, I don't think McDonald's qualifies as yoga.)I was supposed to walk or lightly jog a little less than a mile to get to the class and when I realized it was more like a two mile run (in 90* weather) I started to realize this may be a wee bit more difficult than I anticipated. The studio was in a basement on a very hip street and the instructor spoke English. Unlike my McDonald's DVD which is very calm and pleasant sounding, this instructor went pretty fast and sounded a bit like a depressed/bored secretary.
About 20 minutes into the class, as my friend and I are balancing like a stork on one foot with our bodies flat and perpendicular, tucking our chins down to look at our back foot, do we notice a great big beetle crawling towards our mats.
I giggle as the beetle heads the other way annoying the yoga expert in front of me. Oops. 5 minutes later he returned. I quietly tip-toed to the back of my room to grab my shoe (you do yoga barefoot) and quietly brushed the bug away from our mats, careful not to interrupt the class. WHACK! Okay - so I interrupted the class but the bug was dead. Namaste.The class continued well and with about 20 minutes left the expert in front of me looked back - I think to make sure I was still alive as I hadn't interrupted her recently. Lucky for me the pose the instructor had just told us to do was a stretch I've been doing since 6th grade before every soccer game or practice. Who's the expert now!?! Well she trumped me five minutes later when everyone was standing on their head and balancing on their elbows...that was a bit beyond my skill level.
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