Blog/May 2008/May 23rd

May 16th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

This week I took two days off of work, and took the entire family (my mom, both daughters) on a whirlwind tour of a large part of Israel. We started by heading east from Maale Adummim, past Jericho and up the Jordan Valley road -- which, of course, more or less follows the Jordan River. Soon we were at Beit Shean and continued to Tverya in the Lower Galilee. Then we turned to the east, and went to the city of Katzrin in the Golan Heights. From there we went through Kiryat Shmona and on to Dan where we had lunch at "Dag `al haDan", which was an interesting experience. I don't remember ever having eaten among so many 'free range' roosters. They were literally strutting all over the place, along with ducks and a peacock.

After Dan, we went to Tsfat, which is beautifully scenic but a pain to navigate in a car. Then we descended to Tverya and moved on to our accommodations for the night, at Mitspe Netofa, a very quiet and scenic religious village. The rooms were clean and well kept; and there was room for all of us in one 'suite'. That night, we went to Tverya for dinner, and had a wonderful dairy meal close to the water. The next day, we headed south to Afula and had breakfast there. Then we continued to Caesaria on the Mediterranean coast, and on to Tel Aviv. Finally, we headed back to Maale Adummim. Mom got a good overview of what the Land is like (as did my daughters, though they had seen most of what we toured before).

During the drive I kept thinking something was wrong with the car, because I would periodically hear a loud "eeep!" sound, which I could have sworn was due to a faulty transmission or something. Turns out, it was my mom -- bless her, she thinks the brakes are voice-controlled! After we pried her fingers out of the hand-rests, she was fine. (Nota bene: I drive like other Israelis -- to do otherwise is to court disaster. I had toned-down my style to suit my mom more closely, but apparently not closely enough.)

Esther and my Mom met with the contractor to pick out bathroom fixtures and tiles. We are gutting the bathrooms as well as the kitchen in the place we're moving to; lately it seems our lives are revolving more and more around the mechanics of getting the work done before we move. Anyway, she picked out the ceramics so now we can move on. Hopefully the contractor will start on time (and more important, finish on time). We'll update you as that progresses.

I took my mom to the Machane Yehuda Market (aka the shuq), where she bought a kilo of pistachios. She'd been raving about the pistachios since last week, so we had to go and let her get her fill. A kilo. That's a lot of nuts. Apparently we get them from Iran. Not 'nuts', just pistachios -- Iran has its own nuts. Speaking of nuts, you may want to be careful what you say when you aren't completely fluent...

Who is like Your people, Israel! As were were at the shuq, I went to the vegetable vendor I normally go to. He had fresh cherries, and I inquired hesitantly about the price. He said, "they're not so bad... not sixty, not fifty, not forty..." -- I was wondering when he would get to the actual price. He said, "here, try one". So I took the fruit, and said the shehecheyanu blessing (the blessing said before eating a seasonal fruit for the first time, among other things) -- and three people around me answered, "AMEN!". THAT never happened to me in the USA.

An interesting article in the Asian Times, explains why Israel is the happiest country. A thought-provoking article, whether or not the actual data are correct (that needs to be verified independently).

Now I'll turn over the keyboard to my youngest, for her perspective:

What Really Happened This Week: A Sarah's Eye View

Hello, family, friends, friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends who have started reading my father's blog. I'm Sarah (see title), and doubtless you've noticed occasional updates in my father's blog about how I am doing. Well the time has come, I said to myself, to tell you all myself! So here I am, ready to tell you what really happened this week.

Nothing much, to be honest. Besides that whole Trip To The North event, which I'll get to soon, my week was rather boring. So I guess I should just skip to the trip! (I'm a poet and I didn't know it!)

What my father probably wrote (I haven't read it) is that we took a drive around the country, visiting the north and showing Grandma the general splendor of Israel. Really, we spent most of the time in the car, as there was a merciless Heat rampaging about outside, and Grandma didn't feel like walking much (thank you, Granny!). So I was stuck sitting next to my darling sister (Daniela), who kept trying to sleep on my shoulder, and kept berating me for plugging into my iPod, even though there was nothing else to do. My legs fell asleep more often than I did, and it seemed as though the sun was following me, as it was without fail always on my side of the car.

Anyway. So we moseyed up the Jordan River and climbed our way up to the Golan Heights. Not much there but an overpowering smell of recycled cow meals (if you catch my drift), and a lot of dry grass. Then we went to Qatzrin, where there was a "Talmudic Village". Pretty cool, I guess, but those people must've been short back then, because I had to duck to get through the doorways. Then came Tel Dan, where we ate at a fish restaurant that was recommended by everyone and their mom. The food was good, but I must say that the setting was less than satisfactory. There were roosters strutting about inside the restaurant (or "inside", I should say) and little cotton fluffies floating into our faces.

I think I have the order of events wrong, but anyway we also went to this little trail thing, where my mother had to dip her toes in the water. I ate a popsicle. Fun.

Then the night in this little place outside of Tiberias, where, because of the lack of air conditioning (I don't care if it wasn't that hot!) I woke up sweating. Squished into the car once more and we're off again on our Aaron Family Israel Invasion. Breakfast in Afula (first time ever there), then the beach. We went to Qesaria, and tried to get in with our National Park membership card (I know, I don't know why we have it, either), but the dude was being stupid and wanted Daniela and Grandma to pay, because Daniela's over 18, and Grandma...is, too. But I didn't get that because so are Mama and Daddy and they didn't have to pay. Whatever, he was a jerk, and we moved on to the next (free!) beach. Dipped toes in Meditteranean and ran away to Tel Aviv, which is basically a dumpy looking city full of smog, humidity, scantily clad women, and people sleeping on benches. We had a little lunch there (french fries, pita and hummus), and then we left to return home.

Coming home was the best part of the trip, I think. Because I could get out of the car and lay down on our yummy couches and check my e-mail (oh glorious Internet!). But now my spirits are dampened by an evil being called Huge Test That Will Determine My Grade on Sunday, and another one of those in two weeks, and then four Bagrut tests (harder than the SAT's--you Americans stop whining about those!) in a month.

Don't you feel better now that you have the full truth of the week? Hopefully my lovely father will let me continue to enlighten you.

Sincerely,
Sarah

Shabbat shalom!

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