Home Sweet Home - Part One

Paul gets to go on lots of trainings and attend conferences for work, but this time, I got to go on training too!  Paul was studying the nitty gritty of managing contracts and I was studying the basics of U.S. assistance to other countries.  Our trainings were conveniently both in Washington, D.C. (so we got to spend some time in one of our favorite cities, eat at our favorite restaurants, and see our friends!) and conveniently timed around our nephew’s baptism and my Grandfather’s major award!  Although we promised ourselves after Christmas that we wouldn’t do it again, we crammed 4 states, 7 flights, a train, and 2 buses into 2½ weeks – and it was totally worth it!  We were pretty useless at work the first day back so this weekend is the recovery consisting of sleep, water and vegetables.

So the trip starts out with us, as always, super excited to be back in the States.  Because we were on official training, work told us a dollar amount that we can spend on the hotel and we find our own hotel.  And if you know me, you’d know that I will get the best deal – so we stayed in some of the most famous 5 Star hotels in the city!  Fabulous!  We got to see a lot of our friends which was really really great (and the main reason we were excited to get back to D.C.).

Just like every time before, I loved D.C.!  The food, the architecture, the smiling people!  What better way to start off your day than a man saying “Good Morning!  Have a great day!” and handing you a free newspaper as you enter the metro?  The training was really interesting and we got in as much time with friends as possible while being introduced to three new great restaurants:  Founding Farmers, Grill Fish and Hill Country.  The first is all local food with amazing cocktails (like the specialty cocktail at our wedding.  The second was delicious fish – also ecofriendly!  The third wouldn’t make my list of favorites, but Paul liked it so much he ate there twice in two weeks.  We also checked out a few houses but they were just slightly over (4xs) our budget.

The highlight of Part One for me was my short trip to Miami!  I’ve heard many people compare Miami to Tel Aviv – nothing alike.  Okay, very much alike, but to compare them is to compare McDonald’s to Ray’s Hell Burger…or Wal-Mart to Nordstrom’s.  The best part about it?  Alexandria!!!  If you haven’t seen us together, we are quite a pair.  Not only do we ALWAYS get asked if we are sisters, but there is always an interesting or funny story about the people we meet or the things we do.  She is great, her friends are great, the food was great, the weather was great! My only complaint is that I never have enough time!

Israel is not so far away...

At the wedding reception we had a table with greeting cards and asked our friends and family to fill out a card and write a date on the back. On that date during the next year (this year, our first year away) we would open the card. We have gotten some really lovely messages and we look forward to those days when we get to open another card at breakfast. Last week one envelope read:
TO: Jen & Paul, Far Far Away

But Israel is not so far away. Especially if you have Skype. Now, this might sound like a Skype advertisement but I assure you they are not paying me for this. I wish they were. Every evening as we are making dinner Paul and I check to see who is on Skype. The usual suspects include our parents, Paul's brother, my cousin (though she never answers), my grandparents and 2 or 3 friends. We talk to those people quite often.

Moral of the story: if you miss us you should get on Skype! It makes the Atlantic seem like a puddle. For example: this weekend my mom and I had a one hour sewing lesson/date and my brother gave me a hug all the way from California! I had lunch/dinner with Greg in Brazil, a drink with my dad in Ohio, a chat with Jill in Wisconsin, with the Vaca family in Connecticut, with Alexandria in Florida, and coffee with my grandparents in Wisconsin.

Granted, it would be nice to sit next to my mom for the sewing lesson or actually feel my bother's arms instead of the hard computer monitor; but Skype is leaps and bounds above letters, phone calls or emails. And it is infinitely better than silence.

Assuming we had unlimited vacation time and money this is one example of why it is difficult to physically cross the Atlantic to see everyone: Paul might make it, but I'm not THAT strong of a swimmer. Haha, just kidding. Paul is having one heck of time trying to get home from a bachelor party right now. His "trip" home will end up being about...Sunday at 7pm until Wed at 3am - plus an 8 hour time change. You can do the math. It was not supposed to be this way, but this is how the mother nature, the human body and airlines work. Paul will write about this later and you'll understand what I mean.

Tel Aviv & Coffee

Tel Aviv is an odd city with regards to its coffee. On the one hand it has a thriving cafe culture - much like my beloved Buenos Aires - in which there is a cafe on almost every block and you can find people enjoying a cup of coffee at almost any hour. There is wireless internet at the cafes, light food, a good atmosphere and friendly baristas.

While there are many smaller independent cafes, the most popular is Cafe Cafe. You can think of it as the Starbucks of Tel Aviv. (There are no Starbucks in Tel Aviv - I guess they came in a few years back, failed and fled.) Our neighborhood loves cafe so much that we have 2 Cafe Cafe's right across the street from each other! (One is Cafe Cafe and the other is Cafe Cafe Kosher.)

Anyway, the other hand of the cafe culture here is such that people drink great coffee in the cafes, and really crappy coffee at home. The grocery store has a section about 2 feet wide with coffee - 80% of which is instant! There are a few bags of expensive "Turkish" coffee which are about the size you get in your hotel room (and look to be the same quality).

The conundrum here is that Jen LOVES coffee. I think this is in large part thanks to her dear friend Alexandria who shared her great coffee with Jen in college :) Jen has a coffee bean grinder, a french press, coffee cups and these adorable little red espresso cups (thanks Kathryn!)....and no coffee to put in them :( The "Natural Foods" grocery store (in quotation marks because they also sell fruit loops)had a bag of coffee that looked decent for about $8, but it was finely ground and that doesn't work too well for my french press.

Lamenting the lack of coffee - a coworker told us we could buy good whole bean coffee at The Coffee Bean. So, Jen biked the half mile to the Coffee Bean in search of the infamous whole bean coffee, and there it was! A large bag for 190 Shekels! ($51.35)!!! Oh my gosh! Needless to say, Jen still has no coffee. Any recommendations for online coffee stores that ship internationally???