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.

Holidays with Family (and some cute babies!)

We just got back from the States in which we were able to celebrate a whole seasons worth of holidays in just two weeks!  We didn't get to see everybody we wanted to, and we'll still wish we were there on Christmas, but it is good to be back in our place.

Our first stop this trip was Connecticut where we celebrated a wedding (again), a first birthday and Thanksgiving.  As if this didn't keep us busy enough we also squeezed in some delicious Mexican food made with lots of love by our friend Jenny, a stop at the local watering hole the night before Thanksgiving to see the variety of locals, and a nice long walk in the woods.  We had so much fun playing with our nephew Atlas...or more so...following him around as he crawled and walked and explored the whole house.

I think after our many trips crossing time zones we've almost figured out how to beat the jet lag:  NyQuil and Red Bull.  I know - not the healthiest, but I don't think the body was made for time travel and when you only have a few days, you can't waste the best hours sleeping.  Oh..and baking at 630am.  If you can't sleep, might as well do something fun! I had a great time making him these really cute Sesame Street cupcakes...I won't tell you how long they took.  But if you'd like some - forget it.  This was probably a one time shot and only one other person in the world (right now) will ever get anything close to this.

The theme of the trip seemed to be babies!  In addition to Atlas, Paul's friend had a baby just days before we landed.  He was so small and looked just like his dad!  I admired him upstairs for a bit while his dad had band practice in the basement.  Live show!  It was pretty cool.

The next..and prettiest..baby was Allison Marie.  She has got to be the cutest little girl I've ever seen! (and she happens to look like me! :) )  Alli turned 5 weeks old while we were there and greeted me with a dirty diaper.  We met our niece during the second half of our trip in California where we spent a few days with my brother and sister-in-law.

When colleagues asked how my trip was I couldn't say fast enough: "Great! I met my niece! She is so cute!  She smiled at me!!!"  This is monumental because she is just starting to smile and I had played with her the night before.  In the morning as soon as she saw me she smiled. :)  Did I mention how adorable she is?

Besides the baby, I also got to see my entire immediate family in California!  My mom, dad, Paul and I cooked up a storm in the kitchen! They cooked, I poured flour all over the counter every hour and used up all of the butter.  Shawn and I read so many books to Alli and he was awesome just holding her and playing with her during tummy time.  Amy and I went to yoga.  That was the coolest yoga studio I've been to and blows anything I've seen in Israel so far out of the water.  It was really fun and I can't wait to go again next time I'm in Cali!  Dusty made some amazing waffles and gave us all a tour of the USS Midway.  We also snuck in a walk around the block, a trip to the zoo, and a few trips to the grocery store (the Salvation Army woman outside of the store made quite a pretty pen during my many mini-trips).

It was a super fun trip!  I wish we'd have had more time to hit up more locations and see more people.  On the bright side, we'll be back in March!

Where in the world are...jen and paul vaca? (You're supposed to sing that)

I knew when we signed up for the foreign service that we would be doing a lot of traveling, but I didn’t think we’d be doing this much!  Paul especially!  As of two weeks ago, we are counting down our time in Israel by trips and visits.  When I was little and wanted to know when mass would be over, I’d ask my mom how many more songs they were going to sing.  That was a fun way to count, but this even more fun! 

Two weeks ago we unexpectedly made a trip back to the States for Paul’s grandmother’s funeral (she was 104 years old!).  While it is a sad reason for travel, we are always so happy to be back in the U.S. and especially when we get to spend time with family.  (Funny side story:  as soon as we get out of the airport, I sit on a bench next to a stranger who is also waiting for a ride and he is speaking on the phone….in Hebrew.  He lives just 15 miles from us here.)  The trip was so short, but we so enjoyed every minute (and fought the jetlag for every waking moment) that it felt like much longer.   

On the way home we had a lovely 15 hour layover in Amsterdam!  At least it sounded lovely.  We landed at about 6am and after washing up in the airport bathroom, we headed out into the city…which was still asleep.  Luckily we didn’t see anyone we knew there because I’m sure we were a pair of walking zombies.  Three nights before we were flying to the States (and slept about 5 hours each).  The next two nights we were jetlagged, but managed to sleep for about 7 hours out of pure exhaustion.  The third night we were flying back and the poorly timed dinner and early breakfast made for at most 4 hours of sleep. Listen to me, complaining about an international trip and chance to see Amsterdam!  It was lovely.  We went back to the Van Gough Museum, took a nap in the park, had a delicious traditional meal, and walked a few miles around the city.  This has become normal for us.

Now we’re back in Israel.  But not for long.  Paul is heading out to the Hague this weekend (which is a 20 minute metro ride from Amsterdam).  Two weeks after he returns we’ll be heading to Brazil for Greg and Mafe’s wedding, stopping in London for long layers on each leg of the trip!  (I’ve wanted to go here since I was 10 years old!  Time to brush up on that Portuguese.)  A few weeks after that trip we’ll hopefully start our U.S. tour (California and Connecticut…and maybe Ohio and New York?).  If all goes well the first visitors will arrive the day we get back.  Jill and Mitch have tickets! And then hopefully two or three more visitors…then we’ll be packing up our house and we’re done with Israel. 

We heard a joke a while ago that now seems so true: “You know you’re in the Foreign Service when your favorite coffee shop is in the Amsterdam airport.”  (When I read that now I don’t think it will be funny for you.  But it is for us, because it is so true.  We know the departure times and flight plans by heart, and we either know the layover cities or know someone who knows them well, so we become experts at the 8 hour vacation/tour – Newark, Philly, Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt.  Any one of them could be inserted into that joke.  We even know which terminal the flights go into and out of in Newark.  It is really weird.)

She stuck in her thumb and pulled out a cherry!

It is cherry season again in Israel.  This is one of the things we like about it here – we always and only eat what is in season.  I think we’ve bought one bag of frozen veggies, and it is still in the freezer.  Otherwise, the market is full of the freshest produce when it is in season.
We really should have tracked the seasons so that we can tell people who are coming when to expect what (and when to be ready to not be able to find something).  Strawberry season, for example, is March/April and avocado season ends just before 5 de Mayo.  But anyway – now it is cherry season which means most of the fruit stands in the market have huge piles of cherries! 

There were wild fires on the way up there.

Last year I made my grandma Schuett’s cherry soup!  I don’t think I ever ate it when she made it, but I inherited her recipe and it was delicious!  I bought a kilo of fresh cherries (I don’t know how much that is in pounds…I’ve been out of the States for long enough to not know how much a pound of cherries or chicken is.  But I know how much 200 grams of cheese is and how much 1 kilo of cherries is.  They will take you about 45 minutes to an hour to pit with a hairpin – another cherry secret passed down from Grandma.).

This year I thought I’d take it a step further.  It wasn’t enough to make my own cherry pie from scratch, or pit my own fresh cherries…no…this year – I wanted to pick my own cherries!

My friend Claudia and I drove to the northern most Northern tip of Israel (we were literally only kilometers from Jordan and kilometers from Syria – no, I don’t know how far in miles).  There was a fruit orchard with tons of cherry trees and…ready for it…RASPBERRY BUSHES!  These were the only bushes I’ve seen in all of Israel…and there were fewer bushes for the whole country than there were in my backyard growing up.  Nonetheless, after crawling on my hands and knees for 30 minutes, I found 12 raspberries!  The 20 seconds that those little berries dripped down my fingers and melted in my mouth were magical!

Anyway – back to those cherries.  At first we were like kids in Willie Wanka’s factory, eating cherries off of every tree.  Then we started to get full, so we got pickier and only ate the darkest berries that were warmed with sunlight.  Then we would only eat one from a tree – unless that one tasted good, then we’d try another from that tree.  Eventually my stomach started to hurt, so we moved to the raspberries and eventually decided to fill my bucket with the cherries (instead of my mouth).

I think I succeeded in eating my fill!  And then, with the kilo of cherries I hand-picked myself, I made a delicious cherry pie!  Mmmm.

We always see Israelis jumping into flower beds or behind bushes to take pictures.  This is our ode to the Isreali cherry pickers.

Life in Paris

Neighborhood Fromagerie

Paris was a really great trip – one of my favorites – but you probably got that from the last post.  What you probably didn’t get is what we actually DID in Paris.  So here is a brief rundown of the trip.

We rented an apartment that we found listed online.  We did this in Germany too – it was a great time and we’ll probably do it again on our next trip!  I landed a few hours before Paul, so I dropped the bag at the apt. and headed out walking.  I think I walked a spiral around our apartment trying to get the feel of the neighborhood (which was awesome!) and eventually made my way to the water, hoping for my first glimpse of the either the Eifel Tower or the Louvre.  Right as I sat down with my map – Paul called.  I quickly walked back to the apartment (okay...I had to go quickly to make up for the time spent in a scarf shop on the way there).

Friends recommended a few places for dinner, but it wasn’t even dark yet so we decided to walk and see if we found something cute and popular.  By the time the sun set and we’d found a place it was 10pm.  This happened most nights because a.) the sun set late, b.) we were snacking at every cheese shop we passed, and c.) we were just not paying attention to the time. 

Butcher in a market.

The next day was more walking, we do this a lot when we’re in a new city.  I think we’ve made my dad walk about 10 miles every day on every trip he makes to see us.  We even made my mom and little brother walk about that far at about 5am in January (yes, it was cold!).  Back to Paris…

We did picnics in the parks, at the Eifel Tower, walked around the beautiful neighborhoods, went to church, stopped at cafes, tasted tarts…it was wonderful.  What we didn’t do was museums or tours or schedules.  Paul had a conference to attend on the last three days so I wandered by myself.  The first thing I did was go to the Lourve. 

Lost.

I thought I’d spend hours enjoying the art – I was out of there so fast.  Too many tourists, not enough (if any) abstract pieces.  I had lunch with a friend and she pointed me in the right direction, to a museum full of abstract art from Monet and the Duffy brothers.  Well…there went my afternoon!  It was wonderful.  I was in such a good mood that I got lost walking back to the hotel…but getting lost in Paris means you end up in another beautiful neighborhood with a beautiful bridge and gold statues! 

On the second to last day I discovered the joy of shopping in Paris!  Yes, it took me that long.  I went into 5 Zarras (yes, I know they are all the same, but maybe I missed something in the first four!).  I loved every store and the experience of trying on clothes was so much fun!  They were so friendly (Voila! Here is the dressing room) and so cute when I didn’t buy the clothes (C’est non?!?).  And when I did buy something I was surprised by the price – I conveniently forgot to look up the exchange rate so everything at least looked cheap (I think the real price was about 20% higher) and a lot of times things were on sale (but there was no sale sign).

The last day in Paris was a wild goose chase as I went searching for that scarf shop from the first day.  I was in a hurry the first day so I didn’t actually BUY the scarf, but the thought of having it taunted me the whole trip.  Again, I spiraled the neighborhood for about 2 hours before giving up…and then there it was!  In my last few hours I grabbed a scarf, some macaroons, two limes (we usually can’t buy them here) and jumped on the metro.  The city really felt like home from the minute I got there, making the six days feel like I’d been there for months.  Sitting on the plane I was listening to my music and it sounded happier.  The people looked happier, the food tasted better.  Now it seems like it was such a short trip, taken so long ago. 

Picnic with a view.

Paree Paree!

Oh Paris!  I miss you!  I haven’t written this post (or the postcards) because they are all in the past tense – and that would mean my trip to Paris has ended.  But now that I’ve written it, I see that it hasn’t made Paris a part of the past, it has taken me back to Paris.  

Paul and I are sitting on a shawl in Park Luxembourg.  We can hear other Americans around us, but mostly French.  I’m pretty sure we’ve blended in and – as long as they can’t hear us – they will all think we are French.  We’ve snagged a little spot on the green with an amazing view of the Mansion.  There are walking paths on 3 sides of us – but far enough away that we aren’t bothered by the passerbys…not that they would bother you because they are just strolling along in their perfectly fashionable and dressy outfits chatting about art and wine and great food! And I just want to replay this moment over and over and over again.

We happily discovered that when you buy a bottle of wine here they don’t mind opening it for you and leaving the cork 1/3 of the way in so it doesn’t spill in your bag on the way to the park.  Supposedly you aren’t allowed to drink in public, but our guidebook says “the French don’t obey laws that they think are senseless.”  Oh, I love this city!  Renting an apartment was a great idea!  It makes me feel like we are Parisians!  Every time I say this (when crossing the street on a red light, sipping coffee in a café, buying cheese, spinning around in my new dress!), Paul reminds me that I AM Parisian!  (More on this in the next post.)

(This is my favorite part!)  We leave our apartment early this morning, walk down the 5 flights of winding warped centuries-old stairs.  We pass the crepe place, the brasserie (bar and food), the boutique, the patisserie (pastries), and the fromagerie (cheese)!  Actually, we don't just pass any of them – we stop to look in the window at all of them, and get drawn into the fromagerie!  How could we resist?!?!  Cheese for our picnic!  Eventually we find a table in the sun at a café with a great view for people watching.  We order two coffees and two croissants.  This is so flaky and warm and gewy and delicious!  I didn’t know what a croissant was until this very moment.  Should I order another?

Eventually we move on and walk through the beautiful neighborhoods that lead us past the museums, over the river, past the Notre Dame…we walk as if we’ve seen them a million times – and yet every time we see them I light up with the excitement of a little kid!  This is Disney World for adults!  We stay longer than we normally would at the café and the store because that is how you do it in Paris, and because every moment is so enjoyable that you don’t want to move on.  We walk a little slower, smile a lot more, daydreaming along the way.  As we approach the park we pass through a small market and grab some meat, fruit, bread, and a bottle of wine. 

It didn’t take us long to find this most perfect spot to sit in the park, and I think we’ve got the Parisian thing down from the daily routine to the food – and my French is improving!  The city instantly feels like home.  I let out a long slow sigh as if I’ve finally arrived at the place which I’ve been in such a rush to get to.  The rest of the world becomes a quiet blur, circling around this very spot on this little shawl in this beautiful  garden in Paris.

The Baptism

During our first full weekend in the States we headed to New Jersey to see Paul’s family and attend the baptism of our nephew.  Though I missed the Brazilian dinner Paul’s brother and fiancé made on Friday night, I heard great things about it.  We’ll have to have a cook-off one of these days!  Saturday brought more time with family and more great food.  “Pah, pah, pah, Paul” – It didn’t work.  The baby is still too young to pronounce the letter P, much less say Paul.  Maybe next time.

The reception for the baptism was before nighttime the Mass and once all of the guests were there, Paul’s sister told us she wasn’t 100% sure the Mass was going to be in English! Ha ha.  It was…and it wasn’t.  Half of the songs and half of the readings were in English.  The gospel and homily were done in both English and Spanish.  And the baptism was only in Spanish.  I was translating for Paul’s cousin which is pretty difficult given that I haven’t spoken Spanish in a year.  The church was packed and the mass was…long (3 hours).  After the part and the after-party, we went back to the hotel to hang out with Paul’s siblings.  As I write about this all now I don’t know how we had the energy to do it all, but when you only have limited time back home with everyone you just subtract and hour of sleep and add a cup of coffee, and somehow it all works out.

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!