Kishkashta

If a blog falls in the forest and nobody is there to read about it...

2007-03-09T22:57:00.000+11:00

Just in case someone stumbles here and wonders what happened, here's a summary of what's going on in my life at the moment:
1. My best friend is battling breast cancer. I'm spending most of my spare time helping her in any way I can: talking, cooking, babysitting, whatever I can.
2. We're buying a house and spending lots of time house hunting. And,
3. I'm pregnant.
All this on top of regular full-time work, raising a toddler, etc.
Long story short, I have plenty going on in my real life right now and I just don't have time for an online life too. It's nice to be back in the real world 100% anyway.
If things ever quiet down enough that I actually get bored, who knows? Maybe I'll blog again.
I'm siiiiinging in the wind....

Summary

2007-01-24T22:46:00.000+11:00

I've been rather busy the last few days. I don't really have much time to blog, so I'll do it in bullet points:
1. No water at the "tzimmer" (guest house) for 4 days.
2. Sick child with a fever of 39.5 degrees C.
3. Sick and tired MamaWombat packs everything and moves to expensive hotel at Hadassah.
4. Hotel is awesome. Hot water! Clean beds! Towels that don't stink of cigarette smoke! Woohoo!
5. Breakfast is included.
6. Tzimmer owner not only doesn't reimburse for 4 days without water, but wants to charge an extra 4 days because "the electricity bill was really high". I don't even know how to respond, I'm so stunned. Maybe it was high because the central heating didn't work half the time, the roof leaked, and the doors and windows don't close properly, so we had to use the a/c a lot??
Summary: One more week here without hubby will not be easy but now that we're out of the tzimmer-from-hell, and Junior seems to be getting better, it should be ok.

Food, glorious food

2007-01-17T01:01:00.000+11:00

Currently sipping a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, I wanted to tell you about some of the wonderful food experiences I've had here in Israel.
The food in general is just great - simple, but yummy and usually rather healthy as well. Lots of fresh veggies and fruits; fresh, thick pita bread; amazing olive oil.
We were rather disappointed by the food at the Dead Sea hotel. I remembered Israeli hotel breakfasts as huge feasts, but the food there was more like army dining room food. The problem is, there's nowhere else to buy food there in the middle of the desert. And on a Saturday there's no cooked food either!
But on our drive back we stopped at a little place next to a gas station. There were lots of Harleys parked outside. The food at Muza was just awesome and we ate enough to make up for the 3 days of meager fare at the hotel.The other day we had breakfast at Bar BaHar. No, it's not a bar, it's a restaurant overlooking the Jerusalem hills with a few walking tracks in the surrounding forests. The food was sumptuous: freshly baked home-made pita bread, fresh salad, yummy cheese with zaatar, fresh herbs from the garden. The coffee was excellent too.
With all this great food, I'm surprised I haven't gained a few extra kilos!

Trees

2007-01-16T23:33:00.000+11:00

An Ein Gedi tree
Almonds and a weird lemon in Sataf:

Dead Sea pics

2007-01-16T23:22:00.000+11:00

Last weekend I surprised hubby for his birthday. My mom agreed to babysit for the entire weekend and we drove to the Dead Sea for a relaxing stay at hotel + spa.
Here are the Kumran caves where the Dead Sea scrolls were found:

This is on the way to the caves: in the centre of the picture you can see a person rappeling down the cliff. Some more people are waiting at the bottom.Here's a view to the Dead Sea with some of the many hot-houses where fruits and veggies are grown.
Driving to Masada:

From Masada, at the top of the cable car ride:
Tristram birds on Masada
The view from our hotel room. The mountains are in Jordan.
The view to the other side from the hotel room.
The hotel's Dead Sea beach. The water was too cold to swim in, but they have a thermal pool of sea water that you can bob around in.
It's not easy being a Dead Sea hotel elevator door!Here's something you don't see much at the Dead Sea: a boat, stranded on the salty sand.
Heavy machinery is more common than boats.

Jerusalem pics

2007-01-16T22:58:00.000+11:00

ok, I know I owe lots of photos, so here we go.
These are from Sataf, where crops are grown on a hillside as they were in biblical times.

There are several springs and their water is channeled to the crops.
And there's Hadassah on the hill! That winding road is my daily commute.

Home?

2007-01-16T22:41:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I took hubby to the airport for his flight back to Sydney.
Junior and I are staying here for another 2 weeks.
I can't help but feel that the only thing that I really miss in Sydney now, is hubby. I would happily stay here for longer if I could. But I have a job to go back to, and Junior has his friends and routine to go back to.

It was hard yesterday, saying goodbye at the airport. But not so much because of the next 2 weeks for me; if they go by as fast as the previous month has, then it won't be any problem.
No, it was hard to see hubby say goodbye to his parents, and his brothers. I couldn't help but think of my own goodbye in two weeks. How old will Junior be when he next sees his family? It's just too hard.

I sat at lunch today, looking at the gorgeous view of the Jerusalem hills on a sunny day. I very much feel that I belong here. With all the good and bad in it, Israel is my home, and it doesn't matter how many years I live in another country.

Too many passports, too many options

2007-01-10T22:55:00.000+11:00

I have a problem.
I'm having too much fun here.

I didn't expect to enjoy myself so much here in Israel. I thought I would miss Sydney. But I don't. I miss the weather, but on gorgeous sunny days like today I don't even miss that.

My work here is 10 times more interesting. The people are genuinely friendly and warm. I'm surrounded by family and my son has all his cousins to play with and his four grandparents to spoil him. I have as much fun hanging out with my girlfriends as we did in high-school. Life is good.

Hubby is going back in a few days, and then I'll have 2 weeks here without him. I'm stressing about that already, and when I think of leaving and going back to Sydney I get all depressed.

I didn't expect this.

Add to this quite a few job offers that we both have already got at several universities here, and it all becomes too confusing.

I think it will take me a while to think things over and come to some sort of conclusion.

Zoo pics

2007-01-04T23:01:00.000+11:00

Since I got to work each day, and hubby mostly goes travelling, guess who gets to take the camera?
So today I have some pics that I didn't actually take myself, from the Jerusalem zoo.
Hanging around: can you do that??

Elephants and giraffes, oh my!

This is an area with some type of gophers or something, and kids can crawl underneath in tunnels, and stick their heads out in these bubbles to see the creatures at eye level.

Taronga zoo is not the only zoo with a view!

Cafe Hillel karma

2007-01-04T22:53:00.000+11:00

I walked over to the Hadassah shopping centre for lunch. There was a plastic bottle on the floor and a man, middle-aged, bitterly kicked it. From behind came a young man, picked up the bottle and threw it in the trash can. I could see from his apron that he's a waiter at Cafe Hillel.

Can you guess where I had lunch?

The salads at Cafe Hillel are huge... colourful and fresh. The country bread is hot from the oven, and the juice is freshly squeezed.

And the waiter got a nice tip.

Teddy

2007-01-04T00:07:00.000+11:00

Teddy Kollek died yesterday at 95. He pretty much turned Jerusalem into everything it is today, and was admired and loved by all.
Yesterday hubby and Junior went to the Jerusalem Zoo - it turns out this was one of Teddy's final projects. The eldest elephant there is named after him...

Hair stylists gone mad

2007-01-03T23:55:00.000+11:00

It had been several months since I got a haircut. My favourite salon in Sydney closed unexpectedly and I didn't know where to go. I was so busy preparing for the big trip, I told myself I'd get a haircut here in Israel instead. I saw a sign in Jerusalem, not far from work, advertising a hair stylist who specialises in short hair. So I made an appointment.

I walked in and one of the junior hair stylists immediately demanded to know how many sugars. Huh? oh. I got a lovely espresso.

I had my hair washed and sat down in front of the mirror. The Hair Stylist Extraordinaire asked "So what kind of haircut do you want?" "Well, I'd like a b.." "No, it doesn't matter because I'll cut it the way I want to anyway, I know just what to do."

And he proceeded to cut for about 5 furious minutes in a frenzied whirlwind of scissors and combs. I nearly fainted when I saw how short he was cutting. He stopped and said, "neshama, I can feel your heart beating. Do me a favor, take another sip of the coffee and calm down a bit before I continue."

My shaking hand reached for the coffee. Soon after he was done and I was sent over to a lesser mortal for final product spraying. Then I was sent to sit under this rotating heater thingy. I nearly fell asleep there until I was told that I'm done and that's it.

Overall it was quite an experience. The cut is shorter than I wanted, but it does look good and doesn't require any special styling, blow drying, or products, which is rare. I'll give it a few more days before I decide my final verdict.

Happy New Year!!

2007-01-01T20:34:00.000+11:00

On the day that it snowed here, I didn't have my camera with me, so no snow pics.
Here are some other pics instead.
Some bike riders on the road to Bet Shemesh:

A freaky, and freezing, cat at Hadassah. Check out the eyes!
Sunset from the bus stop:

More Old City pictures

2006-12-27T20:06:00.000+11:00

From the Migdal David museum:

On the right is the Old City, on the left behind the wall is the new.
Trinkets in the market
T-shirts in the Old City market: IDF, Palestine, Che. You can get whatever you want, and it's all made in China...

Some more pics

2006-12-27T19:57:00.000+11:00

One photo a day is just not happening here, so I'll post a bunch of photos whenever I get the chance.
Here's my morning traffic jam:
And some photos from the Old City on Christmas Day:
This funky glass sculpture looks like some kind of sea anemonie or something:
Jerusalem bagels with a little bit of zaatar in a piece of paper, yum:
An old man and a boy on an Old City rooftop:

Weather

2006-12-27T19:47:00.000+11:00

Since we got here the weather has been pleasant: chilly, but sunny. Yesterday winter started and there was a fierce thunderstorm all night. We got 100mm of rain. Today it's forecast to snow here in Jerusalem! brrr.
I would enjoy this weather more if our accommodation weren't so shoddy. The roof leaks and we have rain plinking into a pot under the stairs, and the entire bathroom is a rain forest. It even rains inside the fridge but that has nothing to do with the roof. And the heating doesn't work because the gas providors don't want to come out there in this weather. grrr... but the owner said he will be on the roof all day to fix things. I just hope he doesn't slip or get hit by lightning or something.

Shabbat

2006-12-23T03:08:00.000+11:00

Getting ready for Shabbat dinner with the in-laws, and just had to hop online while I had the chance.
Here are some pictures from the Hadassah campus and also one of Bet Shemesh from the car.
Happy 8th day of Hanukah!! Tonight we light 11 candles: 8 for Hanukah, 1 Shamash, 2 Shabbat.

Camera's back

2006-12-21T20:13:00.000+11:00

Yay I have my camera again!
Here are a few photos from last week that I finally got to download. Today I'll take a walk around campus and snap a few shots.
Here are some pics from a Lebanese restaurant in Ein Kerem:

An olive tree:

A nicely striated "upside down" coffee:

Offline with no camera

2006-12-21T03:25:00.000+11:00

It's been a week since we landed in Israel, and we haven't had a moment's rest. We've been running around a lot, visiting family and friends and working.
Hubby and Junior both have a bit of a cold that everyone seems to be suffering from here.
I love my work; I just wish I had more time to actually work. The Hadassah campus is beautiful.
Now we are visiting with the in-laws. We don't have Internet at our place up in the hills, so we take advantage of every connection we can plug our cables into (wifi doesn't work well on my laptop for some reason. I'd blame SuSE, but it doesn't work in Windows either.)
A few days ago we forgot our camera here. I have it again now; I am eager to take photos at the uni.
Meanwhile we are running around quite literally from dawn till after midnight every day, so please pardon the light posting.

Jet lag? What jet lag?

2006-12-18T18:55:00.000+11:00

Ok, the weekend's over and now it's time to get to work. I arrived at the uni 15 minutes early to give myself enough time to park and find the office. I had no idea the Hadassah campus was so huge! There's actually an internal bus service that goes around the campus. It took me a while to find the place so I was a bit late. No worries. There's construction work everywhere.

The people are very friendly and helpful. Some were relieved that I speak Hebrew, others were a bit disappointed that I was not a "real" Australian.
Today I'm getting settled: connection to the Internet, parking permit, desk. I hope to start real work tomorrow. I don't have much time after all!

The weekend was fun, we drove all around the country visiting family. Hubby and I are over the jet lag, but Junior wakes us up some time between 4 and 5 in the morning, demanding breakfast. It's pitch dark and very cold up in the mountains at 4. I suppose it will take a few more days to shake the jet lag.

So far I'm enjoying every minute here.

The last time I was visiting the homeland, 3 years ago, everyone we met told us how they would love to go to Australia (or anywhere else) and how lucky we were. Today, all of my colleagues here at uni told me that Israel is the best place to live and asked what we're doing in Australia. "What's the difference? Over there you have a bigger car, a bigger house, and people don't shove in the queue for the bus. That's it!" Well, it's a bit more complicated than that I suppose.

I promise pictures soon.

Greetings from Kazakhst... uhh, Israel

2006-12-16T00:39:00.000+11:00

Shalom from the holy land.
Sorry for not posting earlier, but our accommodation doesn't have internet, so we have to use whatever we can get when we visit people. And since wifi doesn't really work well with my Linux, this isn't always easy.

Anyway, the flight went as well as 30 hours in a tin can could possible be. We are slowly getting over the jet lag.

I'm very happy to be here and I'm really enjoying it... My feelings for this country are always so strong, whether positive or negative, I can't be ambivalent. I love the landscape. I love the people (most of the time). I love the food. I love that I can call my high school friends after not seeing them for 3 years, and we can chat as if I had never left the country, and I know that they are closer friends than any I will ever have in Australia.
I love that my son gets to play with his cousins and everyone understands him when he speaks Hebrew.

The 'tzimmer' we are living in (sort of like a self-contained apartment) is in a small village. It's cute, but has its "charms": the window that doesn't close properly, the bathroom light that switches off when you take a shower, the fridge that freezes our food. But it's up in the mountains, surrounded by pine forests, with crisp clean air. Very relaxing, but it's hard to get used to living offline!

I have no idea how many photos I owe youse, so here are a few:

From the Sydney airport shops:

Our first plane:
and a Tel Aviv cat:

And a note to my internet friends who I promised to call: I promise to call this weekend!

All packed up and ready to go

2006-12-12T10:21:00.000+11:00

well, almost.
Sorry for not posting any pictures the last couple of days; we already packed the camera's USB cable. Maybe I'll be able to post from the airport, or maybe even from the ElAl plane - if they have internet connection then it will be free of charge! cool.
We have so much stuff to schlep, it's not even funny.
In the last couple of days I've been running around in Headless Chicken Mode, but everything seems to be under some sort of control.
I called to confirm our flights. After listening to about 20 minutes of a recorded message telling me there's no need to confirm, I finally got a human to talk to. Of course, our vegetarian meals were not ordered, but Junior got a vegan meal for some reason. Why not? I only asked the travel agent about, oh, 5 times about it.
Anyway, this afternoon we're off to the airport and 24 hours after stepping on the plane, barring any unforseen circumstances, we will be landing in Israel.
Seeya!

Funky tree

2006-12-09T12:30:00.000+11:00

Stress Control

2006-12-09T09:02:00.000+11:00

Stress levels are high. At work I've been working so hard that at 4:00 I suddenly realise that I haven't left my seat all day. I was going to work today, but decided, after getting physically exhausted, to adopt an attitude of "bugger it all". I did enough, and I will work until the plane takes off. Today I can rest.

My little baby grapes are all grown up! Still not ready to eat. Oh well, the birds will have a feast.

Christmas tree

2006-12-07T07:26:00.000+11:00