Cathing Up Updates

Eeek!  It has been a really long time since I've written an update.  Here is a really quick rundown of whats on our plate here.

1.  Christmas in the Holy Land:  We hosted a really fun Christmas cocktail party again this year!  Because new people are always coming here for work and everyone (our friends) stays for only 2-3 years there is a lot of turnover at work and in your friends.  A bunch of our friends who were at the part last year have moved on or were on vacation this time around; but we also have a bunch of friends who weren't even here last year.  It was great.  Although we were sad not to be in the States on Christmas we weren't bored or lonely.  In fact, we had so much going on we were juggling invitations and schedules. 

The two highlights of Christmas were Bethlehem and our tree.  Yes - we were in Bethlehem at the site of the crime.  We were at the Church of the Nativity on Christmas eve.  It was packed!  And there was a parade of the local boy scout groups (imagine Arab boy scouts dressed in kilts, playing American Christmas carols on bag pipes.  That could be an entire post on its own...but I'll have to let this suffice.)  The other highlight was opening our gifts.  We had a lot of gifts from each other, from friends here and from family - and we enjoyed every last minute (hour) of that time.

2. Visitors!!  Yeah!  By far the highlight of the year is Jill and Mitch's visit!  I cannot believe how much we walked and how much we did and saw.  In one day (I kid you not) we were at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Treasury at Petra!!!  The Dome is almost never open to tourists and it is quite a journey to get from the Old City in Jerusalem to the Treasury at Petra in one day.  We all had our first Turkish baths too!  I'm not sure if you could find them in the States, but it is based on the concept of an old public bath house where you come out cleaner than you've ever been in your life!  Scrubbed down and massaged!  I think it was well deserved after hiking 17 kilometers up and down mountains in Petra all day....yes, mountains - these were much bigger than hills.  Next week Paul's parents will be here and shortly thereafter Paul's brother and our sister-in-law.  We can hardly wait!  We're making lists of all of the things we want to show them (and mostly all of the places we want to take them to eat!).  We also had two other visitors this week - friends who happened to be in Israel for some other reason and we were lucky enough to make their busy itineraries.  It was great to see that with both of them we were so excited to talk and listen that there was barely a moment to take a breathe or get a word in.

3.  Friends  One of my best friends here is pregnant!! I'm so excited for her!  Hopefully I'll get to throw a baby shower for her in a few months.  I hosted my first baby shower in December for a colleague who is due any day now.  She said I can come to the hospital to see the baby which will make her son the youngest baby we've ever seen (can I say held?  Will she let me hold him?!).

4. The Departure So we have a tour year assignment here which ends Feb. 26th.  We were all set to pack our things and fly out the first week in March....we were.....but now we're looking forward to more time with our Tel Aviv friends, camping and hiking in the warm spring, having the freshest produce of the year, a bonfire holiday party, and a very-well planned out and organized departure in May.  While we are really looking forward to some down time in the States (especially with those adorable babies!), it is the nicest time of year here, we have great friends here who are excited we're staying, and Katie's having a baby - so I'll be around to do the shower!!

I think that is all for now.

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.