I have not disappeared off the face of the planet. I promise.
I am here. alive and well and have been enjoying california for the past two months.
Its almost 2009 so i figured i should write to you all. I'm lame, please forgive me.
Quick update:
Movie. Was great. Phenomenal learning experience form every angle possible. I learned so much about myself, acting, my acting, making a movie, and that there is only so many nights in a row you can eat pizza and sill crave the stuff. Believe it. I will miss the cast, the experiance, everything really. I can't wait to see it!!!
Acting. not so much has been happening of that since i finished the movie. Maybe it was because i wasn't supposed to stay after the movie so this whole time i wasn't really putting my all into it. i guess i didn't want to get into any long term commitments that would conflict with my plans.
which brings me to ..... my plans. what's next? More nomadic life style. Yes i am hitting the road again and i am taking the show with me. First, with my greatest honeymoon sweet heart, Paula, i will be in chicago for a week to visit the one and only Elie. From there i fly back to Israel. for a month. Yes, Guy has survived first semester of Hungarian med school (passed with flying colors i might add, i am so proud of him) and will be in Israel for his winter break. I will be with him until he has to go back to Hungary for round two. I will then have a weekend in England with family there on the way back to the states. I will land in NY, be there for a week, see all the lovely faces i miss so much, get to my winter clothes in storage (which will be oh so neccessairy for the final destination of my travels (for now (of course))) Minneapolis!!! I will be living for a time with my uncle aunt and cousins who live there. Hopefully be apart of some great theater and projects and meet a lot of great people who will help me to the next phase of my carreer. I know what your thinking, minnisota? but its so cold.....all i have to say to that is: Yes. it is. (I did buy uggs though....)
In the meantime, what have i been doing? Working. Babysitting, searving beers and burgers, you know. making some money which has been nice. But also seeing freinds family and the likes. It has been great being home and back to my old shinanigans with my girls. The holiday season has been full of wonderful bump ins with dear old friends. It has been nice and warm (internally, it can be very cold here) and cozy.
That's basically it for the "quick" update. I leave in less than 10 days and am already having anxiety dreams about packing. I am excited and nervouse and tired and wired all at the same time. I am reflective and pensive and confused and wondering.......
2008 has been such an up and down kind of year, i heard about so many engagements or weddings and happiness as well as so many deaths and saddneess.
for me there was love (can you believe it? Jan will be 1 year after Guy and I met) and travel and exploration as well as success and home and comfort but there has also been saddness and anger and unfairness. I can't say 2008 was all bad but i will not be sad to see it go (don't let the door hit you on the way out bitch!)
It seems like with all the news about israel, 2008 is really trying to go out with a bang (sorry for the saddly literal pun)
So here is to 2009, may it be filled with more happiness than saddness, with success, with reunion, with peace of mind and calm heart as well as peace on earth and quelled rancor between all.
Love, happiness, and health to you all.
Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Long time no write.......
Sorry about that, i guess i got caught up with being home. Ive been doing so much of nothing i just haven't had the energy to sit in front of the computer and type. Bizarre i know. I think maybe i kept waiting for something exciting to happen before i wrote again, but then nothing did.
OK Let's see. So got home, i've caught up on tv, spent time with the family, seen my girls, looked for jobs.....thats basically what i have been up to. Family time is nice. My father came back from cambodia the day i arrived here, my mom picked us both up at the airport together. then he left again 5 days later. He is now still in Cambodia, not sure when he's getting back really. Hanging out with my girls has been a blast and a half. Back in action and reeking havoc on palo alto. We have been to Tapas bars (say tapas bar real fast to someone they'll think your saying topless bar, its fun) and ice skating, gotten our nails done, taken walks, gone to yoga, and talked to strangers till wee hours of the night. Basically back to all our old shinanigans!
Looking for a job has been harder than i thought, well i guess the looking part is not hard its the finding part really. I have signed up with at least 3 different babysitting sites, posted on craigs list twice, and submited myself to all kinds of crazy random posts. I almost cocktail waitressed a holloween party in costume for $100 and tips but the party got canceled. I have found that many amature photographers are in need of natural women modles with good skin, none have been interested in me, yet. And i have emailed my headshots to countless email addresses and have heard nothing back. Accept a compariosn to Andy Macdowel. Its been fun. Oh and i finished my book.
That was the past two weeks.
As of today i found a woman who will let me take care of her hyper active child for 15$ an hour yay!! My worst fear is that i will be trapped and have to listen to the mother tell me more stories of how she learns languages really quickly, like the time she learned danish in 4 months.........
whatever, its work, beggers can't be choosers, and the kid seems cute.
On the film side of things reherasals have started, shooting has not. We have read through the script did some basic blocking with space that we have (we are not in the house we will be filiming in yet becuase the family that lives there is still there) and talked about wardrobe and things like that. Its been fun and exciteing, the cast seems great. I think it will be fun and we will get some great work on film. I am excited for shooting to start but i still need to memorize my lines. I know i said i was planing on doing it about a million posts ago, but then i had to wait for the finalized script, and then i had to reorganize it, and now i have to put it in a bigger binder..........i know i know, i started going through it today.
I also went to a general call for John Casablancas Modeling and Career Center. This was fun. I was encouraged to go by my mother, who so many years ago refused to take me to these things as a kid. I figured i had nothing else to do so why the heck not? it would be a nice break from the tv and craigslist surfing. I got all dressed up and took my self to San Jose for this general audition.
First i must share with you the email i got from them to inform me about the general call. (For all you that have heard the story already here it is in black and white)
Subj: Appointment Scheduled Email
Congratulations on your interest in the John Casablancas Modeling & Career Center ! We look forward to meeting with you and discussing your potential along with specifics about the modeling and acting industry.
We have listed some important reminders about your first meeting with us:
No Jeans
No Sneakers
Solid top, any color except white so that your photos stand out for the photoshoot.
Be Camera Ready!!
ADDRESS:
1090 Lincoln Ave, Suite 1
San Jose, CA 95125
Phone: 408-947-8222
We are located in downtown Willow Glen of San Jose. The cross street is Willow Street.
Note: Please do not reply to this email. Please use the above contact phone number if you need to reach us. Thank you!
Sincerely,
The John Casablancas Team
John Casablancas Modeling & Career Center
"It's In You.We Just Help Bring It Out!"
To learn more about John Casablancas, we invite you to visit
www.jcasablancas.com and www.johncasablancastestimonials.com
In the end there was also a voice mail to clear up all the confusion created by this email.
(How do you congratulate someone on their interest in something? this was unfortunatly not cleared up by the phone call)
When i got there i got the chance to meet such interesting characters. A young man probably somewhere around my age who i witnessed go back to his car in order to retrive his forgotten sunglasses at 6:30pm headed to an indoor event, a young blond little girl shy as can be, a 10 year old girl who knew her shit, an older black lady getting back into the buisness, another girl probably about my age who seemed seriouse about her modeling career, and of course the blond haired big boobed tight assed pencil skirt and high heels wearing young lady who was just so excited to be there. i wish it had a been a mocumentary that i was watching in a movie theater and not apart of. (Honestly i am really not this judgemental) After reading some commercial copy for the camera and hearing the history and misson of John Casablanas Modeling and Career Center we then (and this is my favorite part) walked. the. runway. Yes my freinds, Roneet struted her stuff, i did my little turn on that catwalk, i showed them what i was made of with a soundtrack of Biance's latest and greatest. The 10 year old put us all to shame.
After each individual fashion show we were asked to rate ourselves as an A a B or a C. C means no one likes you and your buttugly and you shouldn't be here (no one in their right mind is going to come to one of these things and rate themselves "not what we're looking for at this time") B means you have the drive and the passion but you lack the skill set or headshots to really be able to market yourself (so give us $2400 a year for training and we'll make you star!) and A means you are working talent and have a head shot and resume. Thats me! I told them i was an A and they told me to come back next week. Today was next week.
I walked in and met with the director of the place, she explained to me how their acting management company works gave me contracts and info pages. Then she set me up with the casting website they have a relationship with and I am supposed to get them 10-20 of my head shots that they can give out. They get 20% of any paid work i book through them, that being said they are not binding and non exclusive. Sounds good right? Well i figured from the begining that i would follow through until they asked for my money, they havn't yet so i guess this means i have an agent in the bay area? I havn't signed anything yet, i have some questions i want to ask, see if i can find that catch somewhere, but if they can get me on some commercial gigs over the course of the next month, i have no complaints. Oh and as i was leaving the 10 year old was coming in with her mom.
I hope babysitting goes well tomorrow and the rest of this week and i really hope this mom can set me up with some other moms for the upcoming weeks, we'll see.
Still no holloween plans, i guess i'll figure it out when i get there.
Hope you are all well where ever you may be.
OK Let's see. So got home, i've caught up on tv, spent time with the family, seen my girls, looked for jobs.....thats basically what i have been up to. Family time is nice. My father came back from cambodia the day i arrived here, my mom picked us both up at the airport together. then he left again 5 days later. He is now still in Cambodia, not sure when he's getting back really. Hanging out with my girls has been a blast and a half. Back in action and reeking havoc on palo alto. We have been to Tapas bars (say tapas bar real fast to someone they'll think your saying topless bar, its fun) and ice skating, gotten our nails done, taken walks, gone to yoga, and talked to strangers till wee hours of the night. Basically back to all our old shinanigans!
Looking for a job has been harder than i thought, well i guess the looking part is not hard its the finding part really. I have signed up with at least 3 different babysitting sites, posted on craigs list twice, and submited myself to all kinds of crazy random posts. I almost cocktail waitressed a holloween party in costume for $100 and tips but the party got canceled. I have found that many amature photographers are in need of natural women modles with good skin, none have been interested in me, yet. And i have emailed my headshots to countless email addresses and have heard nothing back. Accept a compariosn to Andy Macdowel. Its been fun. Oh and i finished my book.
That was the past two weeks.
As of today i found a woman who will let me take care of her hyper active child for 15$ an hour yay!! My worst fear is that i will be trapped and have to listen to the mother tell me more stories of how she learns languages really quickly, like the time she learned danish in 4 months.........
whatever, its work, beggers can't be choosers, and the kid seems cute.
On the film side of things reherasals have started, shooting has not. We have read through the script did some basic blocking with space that we have (we are not in the house we will be filiming in yet becuase the family that lives there is still there) and talked about wardrobe and things like that. Its been fun and exciteing, the cast seems great. I think it will be fun and we will get some great work on film. I am excited for shooting to start but i still need to memorize my lines. I know i said i was planing on doing it about a million posts ago, but then i had to wait for the finalized script, and then i had to reorganize it, and now i have to put it in a bigger binder..........i know i know, i started going through it today.
I also went to a general call for John Casablancas Modeling and Career Center. This was fun. I was encouraged to go by my mother, who so many years ago refused to take me to these things as a kid. I figured i had nothing else to do so why the heck not? it would be a nice break from the tv and craigslist surfing. I got all dressed up and took my self to San Jose for this general audition.
First i must share with you the email i got from them to inform me about the general call. (For all you that have heard the story already here it is in black and white)
Subj: Appointment Scheduled Email
Congratulations on your interest in the John Casablancas Modeling & Career Center ! We look forward to meeting with you and discussing your potential along with specifics about the modeling and acting industry.
We have listed some important reminders about your first meeting with us:
- Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your appointment time.
- Please bring a recent photo of yourself. It does not have to be a professional photo - a snapshot will work just fine. If you do not have a recent photo, that's okay too!
- If you are under the age of 18 years old (or still in high school), you must have a parent present for your appointment. Sorry - no exceptions!
No Jeans
No Sneakers
Solid top, any color except white so that your photos stand out for the photoshoot.
Be Camera Ready!!
ADDRESS:
1090 Lincoln Ave, Suite 1
San Jose, CA 95125
Phone: 408-947-8222
We are located in downtown Willow Glen of San Jose. The cross street is Willow Street.
Note: Please do not reply to this email. Please use the above contact phone number if you need to reach us. Thank you!
Sincerely,
The John Casablancas Team
John Casablancas Modeling & Career Center
"It's In You.We Just Help Bring It Out!"
To learn more about John Casablancas, we invite you to visit
www.jcasablancas.com and www.
In the end there was also a voice mail to clear up all the confusion created by this email.
(How do you congratulate someone on their interest in something? this was unfortunatly not cleared up by the phone call)
When i got there i got the chance to meet such interesting characters. A young man probably somewhere around my age who i witnessed go back to his car in order to retrive his forgotten sunglasses at 6:30pm headed to an indoor event, a young blond little girl shy as can be, a 10 year old girl who knew her shit, an older black lady getting back into the buisness, another girl probably about my age who seemed seriouse about her modeling career, and of course the blond haired big boobed tight assed pencil skirt and high heels wearing young lady who was just so excited to be there. i wish it had a been a mocumentary that i was watching in a movie theater and not apart of. (Honestly i am really not this judgemental) After reading some commercial copy for the camera and hearing the history and misson of John Casablanas Modeling and Career Center we then (and this is my favorite part) walked. the. runway. Yes my freinds, Roneet struted her stuff, i did my little turn on that catwalk, i showed them what i was made of with a soundtrack of Biance's latest and greatest. The 10 year old put us all to shame.
After each individual fashion show we were asked to rate ourselves as an A a B or a C. C means no one likes you and your buttugly and you shouldn't be here (no one in their right mind is going to come to one of these things and rate themselves "not what we're looking for at this time") B means you have the drive and the passion but you lack the skill set or headshots to really be able to market yourself (so give us $2400 a year for training and we'll make you star!) and A means you are working talent and have a head shot and resume. Thats me! I told them i was an A and they told me to come back next week. Today was next week.
I walked in and met with the director of the place, she explained to me how their acting management company works gave me contracts and info pages. Then she set me up with the casting website they have a relationship with and I am supposed to get them 10-20 of my head shots that they can give out. They get 20% of any paid work i book through them, that being said they are not binding and non exclusive. Sounds good right? Well i figured from the begining that i would follow through until they asked for my money, they havn't yet so i guess this means i have an agent in the bay area? I havn't signed anything yet, i have some questions i want to ask, see if i can find that catch somewhere, but if they can get me on some commercial gigs over the course of the next month, i have no complaints. Oh and as i was leaving the 10 year old was coming in with her mom.
I hope babysitting goes well tomorrow and the rest of this week and i really hope this mom can set me up with some other moms for the upcoming weeks, we'll see.
Still no holloween plans, i guess i'll figure it out when i get there.
Hope you are all well where ever you may be.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
What's new pussycat? Woah oo woahoowoah oo
nothing....really......
i just realized thanks to my marymount or theater or whatever it is due to training, i wasn't planing on memorizing lines before rehearsals but i just realized i have two days between rehearsals and shooting....ack. so i guess i have a lot to do before i get on that plane.
I took advantage of the lovely 25th floor here, compleate with pool and sauna, locker rooms, gym, and laundry room. I went swimming today in the indoor pool. fun! and elie and i are doing laundry as i type. more fun!
i also discovered that people don't really walk here in Chicago. i found myself 1.3 miles (thanks google maps) away from the apt and just wanted to double check i was walking in the right direction, so i asked an off duty traffic cop on a bike if i was walking the right way and he said "you gonna walk?"
"uh yeah?"
"yeah, you're going the right way, good luck"
"thanks?"
silly chicagoans....the wind has really gotten to them i think ; )
Anyway like i said nothing really new here.
I did do some research for Elie and my's next day of Chicago adventure. I looked up where that chocolate factory sells their chocolate and Andersonville, which is a super cool neighborhood that i have been to a couple of times now with various people. This reasearch was all made possible by the super duper cool Chicago Transit Association website, my love of which was made possable by the wonderful Betsy....she makes my life so simple and easy and gives in to my simple minded lazyness so well. ; )
CTA is really cool beuase it gives step by step directions on how to get to where you wanna go. You put in starting point and destination like any directions giver and then it gives you 3 possible public transportation routs you could take. I love it! We are happy together.
Also i signed up on JaJah. if anyone reading this has JaJah, let's talk!!
Also i am searching for a job in california. if anyone reading this has one for me, let's talk!!
I have been posting on craigs list and filling out profiles on sitter sites and answering emails left and right! NO ONE wants to hire a sitter for just a month and a half, lame beucase there are all these little children that i could be speaking hebrew with and none of them are going to get to be graced with my presence. sad i know. I'm thinking of joining a temp agency......sigh
I would like to take a moment now to remember an old friend of mine: Mother and her circus animal cookies
I always loved the little white ones better than the pink ones, for some reason i always thought there a difference, but the frosted circus animal cookie is a good friend from childhood and i was very sad to learn that Mother's Cookies has gone under......A fellow frosted circus animal lover could not have put this loss any better:
"They had Mother's to comfort them through the First Depression...how are we supposed to survive this one?"
Thanks, Anna, for that.
To leave on a less tragic note: I also discovered (again because of super Betsy) a cool aprtment finder company. They are totally free, and offer really customer friendly service to find you the best apartment for you. I'm thinking i will call them today and find out all about them for when i get back. But as i understand it they take you around in their company cars to go see aprtments. How great is that? We'll see how that goes. The problem is ill need a some what furnished place so that might make it difficult but i am going to call and ask.
Alright....thats really it, i don't think i could squeez out anything else even if i was doing something with my self ; )
Hope you are all doing well out there!
Yours,
R
i just realized thanks to my marymount or theater or whatever it is due to training, i wasn't planing on memorizing lines before rehearsals but i just realized i have two days between rehearsals and shooting....ack. so i guess i have a lot to do before i get on that plane.
I took advantage of the lovely 25th floor here, compleate with pool and sauna, locker rooms, gym, and laundry room. I went swimming today in the indoor pool. fun! and elie and i are doing laundry as i type. more fun!
i also discovered that people don't really walk here in Chicago. i found myself 1.3 miles (thanks google maps) away from the apt and just wanted to double check i was walking in the right direction, so i asked an off duty traffic cop on a bike if i was walking the right way and he said "you gonna walk?"
"uh yeah?"
"yeah, you're going the right way, good luck"
"thanks?"
silly chicagoans....the wind has really gotten to them i think ; )
Anyway like i said nothing really new here.
I did do some research for Elie and my's next day of Chicago adventure. I looked up where that chocolate factory sells their chocolate and Andersonville, which is a super cool neighborhood that i have been to a couple of times now with various people. This reasearch was all made possible by the super duper cool Chicago Transit Association website, my love of which was made possable by the wonderful Betsy....she makes my life so simple and easy and gives in to my simple minded lazyness so well. ; )
CTA is really cool beuase it gives step by step directions on how to get to where you wanna go. You put in starting point and destination like any directions giver and then it gives you 3 possible public transportation routs you could take. I love it! We are happy together.
Also i signed up on JaJah. if anyone reading this has JaJah, let's talk!!
Also i am searching for a job in california. if anyone reading this has one for me, let's talk!!
I have been posting on craigs list and filling out profiles on sitter sites and answering emails left and right! NO ONE wants to hire a sitter for just a month and a half, lame beucase there are all these little children that i could be speaking hebrew with and none of them are going to get to be graced with my presence. sad i know. I'm thinking of joining a temp agency......sigh
I would like to take a moment now to remember an old friend of mine: Mother and her circus animal cookies
I always loved the little white ones better than the pink ones, for some reason i always thought there a difference, but the frosted circus animal cookie is a good friend from childhood and i was very sad to learn that Mother's Cookies has gone under......A fellow frosted circus animal lover could not have put this loss any better:
"They had Mother's to comfort them through the First Depression...how are we supposed to survive this one?"
Thanks, Anna, for that.
To leave on a less tragic note: I also discovered (again because of super Betsy) a cool aprtment finder company. They are totally free, and offer really customer friendly service to find you the best apartment for you. I'm thinking i will call them today and find out all about them for when i get back. But as i understand it they take you around in their company cars to go see aprtments. How great is that? We'll see how that goes. The problem is ill need a some what furnished place so that might make it difficult but i am going to call and ask.
Alright....thats really it, i don't think i could squeez out anything else even if i was doing something with my self ; )
Hope you are all doing well out there!
Yours,
R
Thursday, October 9, 2008
ok so....
As Elie and I walked ourselves to the synagogue to repent our sins before the end of our day of fasting and atonement, we happened to walk by a lovely Chicago tour bus where we over heard the kind and enthusiastic tour guide telling his bus full of tourists about the GIANT CHOCOLATE FACTORY ABOUT A MILE AWAY.
we both stopped dead in our tracks and did one of those slow head turns in the direction of the tour guide.
our home made chocolate chip cookie smell mystery has been solved.
i know you were all on the edge of your seats......
we both stopped dead in our tracks and did one of those slow head turns in the direction of the tour guide.
our home made chocolate chip cookie smell mystery has been solved.
i know you were all on the edge of your seats......
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Just thought i would share...
Tonight Elie and I remarked once again about how strangely Chicago smells like cookies at night. Its like someone is baking home made chocolate chip cookies on every block, or maybe every single person on every block is baking the home made chocolate chip cookies, or maybe there are just a million Mrs. Fields shops that feel the need to follow us around the city.......
which ever it is, it is weird. And we are not looking forward to walking around in that smell durring our day of fasting.
I would also like to share that my Live Traffic Feed thing on my blog page, is a little confused as to where i am from. I noticed some time ago that every time i logged on to my blog it stated that [insert forgotten city name here], Maryland had just arrived, i decided not to worry too much about it because i had just recently changed my computer system from talking to me in Hebrew so i figured i shouldn't push it. Anyway, after signing on to Elie's blog post just now to read the latest and greatest i noticed that someone from Dallas, Texas has been visiting Elie's blog. Who does Elie know in Texas, you might ask? It's me........Thanks Live Traffic Feed.......maybe i am a super hero after all......
which ever it is, it is weird. And we are not looking forward to walking around in that smell durring our day of fasting.
I would also like to share that my Live Traffic Feed thing on my blog page, is a little confused as to where i am from. I noticed some time ago that every time i logged on to my blog it stated that [insert forgotten city name here], Maryland had just arrived, i decided not to worry too much about it because i had just recently changed my computer system from talking to me in Hebrew so i figured i shouldn't push it. Anyway, after signing on to Elie's blog post just now to read the latest and greatest i noticed that someone from Dallas, Texas has been visiting Elie's blog. Who does Elie know in Texas, you might ask? It's me........Thanks Live Traffic Feed.......maybe i am a super hero after all......
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Pussy cat, pussy cat where have you been?
Was my mother the only one who recited this poem to me?
Anyway i feel like i keep disappearing. In truth i am still here, lying in this lovely pillow filled bed in Chicago. What have i been doing in the past week? This is a very good question.
bullet points might be sufficient here:
Those are the highlights. Not much else is going on. It rained all day today. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur. I look forward to going to sunny California. I think thats all i got. I've started rereading the script and taking notes and thats the work i've given myself to do before i leave here. I have more time on my hands than i really know what to do with so i figure i should get a good few reads in there before the flight west. S
See not super exciteing or thrilling. So i guess its ok to be weekly updateing. See you in a week?
Anyway i feel like i keep disappearing. In truth i am still here, lying in this lovely pillow filled bed in Chicago. What have i been doing in the past week? This is a very good question.
bullet points might be sufficient here:
- Contemporary Photography Museum
- The Bean
- Movie
- Character research
Those are the highlights. Not much else is going on. It rained all day today. Tomorrow is Yom Kippur. I look forward to going to sunny California. I think thats all i got. I've started rereading the script and taking notes and thats the work i've given myself to do before i leave here. I have more time on my hands than i really know what to do with so i figure i should get a good few reads in there before the flight west. S
See not super exciteing or thrilling. So i guess its ok to be weekly updateing. See you in a week?
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
many exciteing things today......
So today i woke up............
thats pretty much all i did till about 2 or 3
at around this time i got a lovely phone call telling me i got a part in the film i auditioned for in California!!!! Woo hoo. i will be playing a lesbian for the next couple of months. California and lesbian lover here i come!
I am actually very excited. Unfortunately it does means that i must leave lovely Chicago and my dearest friend Elie behind. We have had such a great week together! (I don't think its even over yet) We went shopping, cooked, had dinner guests, explored the city a little and plan on doing some more tomorrow. It has been absolutely wonderful to be back with my other half, this is what we finally determined cut it(well close enough anyway) as a description for our relationship.
It was Rosh Hashanah the Jewish new year this week and so we went to synygogue and had guests over for Rosh Hashanah dinner. We cooked a very large expeiramental meal and it all came out pretty darn good if i do say so myself. (pictures to come)
We had all the essentials for a Rosh Hashanah seder, the symbolic foods: beats, apples and honey, green beans (soacked in basalmic vinigar and garlic (thanks Shane), round challah, squash (spaghetti squash backed with some olive oil and topped with some brown sugar (thanks Riva), leek, dates, pomagranit, and a fish head (a cat toy fish that we found in the grocery store, i said symbolic). The rest of the menu included: Chicken cooked in the oven with some broth and potatoes, carrots, onions, leek and some apricot jam. Came out deliciouse and sweet. Salad and wine and a dessert made by me! I tried to make Alfajores for the 3rd time and as it did the 2nd time, the dough came out too dry so instead of making bad cookies i decided to make something a little different, i put a layer of dough on the bottom with a layer of raspberry jam, sprinkled some powdered sugar and then crumbled the rest of the dough on top and sprinkled powder sugar once more. Also came out real tasty. We are all very impressed with Elie and my cooking skills. All in all a lovely dinner.
The other night we enjoyed some freshley backed toll house chocolate chip cookies and milk and have enjoyed endless amounts of chit chatting and laughing and catching up.
It is safe to say i will miss my oportunity to live with him but it will be ok, we all got to do what we got to do. Thats what this career is about......
Tomorrow we are going to explore the fun things of the city like the bean that many of you might remember when Guy and I were here visiting. I look forward to it. Unfortunatly i can't find my battery charger so i can't charge my batteries for camera.
Today i spent a few hours walking in and out of shops, didn't buy anything, got lost more than once, and got a ride from a police man to Elie's theater so we could have dinner together. I got to see the inside of the theater and Elie's make shift office/storage space. It was a fun eventful exciteing day all in all.
Once home we watched this great TV show........wow i finally have time to write about silly mundane things as TV shows about a family with a pair of twins and a set of sextuplets(!!!!!) yes sextuplets.....and they are all half asian, i mean if you are going to populate the world you might as well populate the world with half asian children, they are all so cute.
And......
what you have all be waiting for
I have finally put all my pictures into albums on facebook
(I reserve the right to create another album should some other pictures resurface, just putting it out there)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029115&l=9efc5&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029277&l=55f06&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029284&l=93729&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029313&l=458c0&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029869&l=8f460&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029870&l=1eab8&id=27100103
i know there is a lot, peruse at your leisure
All right talk to you all later.
Hope this post finds you well where ever you are.
thats pretty much all i did till about 2 or 3
at around this time i got a lovely phone call telling me i got a part in the film i auditioned for in California!!!! Woo hoo. i will be playing a lesbian for the next couple of months. California and lesbian lover here i come!
I am actually very excited. Unfortunately it does means that i must leave lovely Chicago and my dearest friend Elie behind. We have had such a great week together! (I don't think its even over yet) We went shopping, cooked, had dinner guests, explored the city a little and plan on doing some more tomorrow. It has been absolutely wonderful to be back with my other half, this is what we finally determined cut it(well close enough anyway) as a description for our relationship.
It was Rosh Hashanah the Jewish new year this week and so we went to synygogue and had guests over for Rosh Hashanah dinner. We cooked a very large expeiramental meal and it all came out pretty darn good if i do say so myself. (pictures to come)
We had all the essentials for a Rosh Hashanah seder, the symbolic foods: beats, apples and honey, green beans (soacked in basalmic vinigar and garlic (thanks Shane), round challah, squash (spaghetti squash backed with some olive oil and topped with some brown sugar (thanks Riva), leek, dates, pomagranit, and a fish head (a cat toy fish that we found in the grocery store, i said symbolic). The rest of the menu included: Chicken cooked in the oven with some broth and potatoes, carrots, onions, leek and some apricot jam. Came out deliciouse and sweet. Salad and wine and a dessert made by me! I tried to make Alfajores for the 3rd time and as it did the 2nd time, the dough came out too dry so instead of making bad cookies i decided to make something a little different, i put a layer of dough on the bottom with a layer of raspberry jam, sprinkled some powdered sugar and then crumbled the rest of the dough on top and sprinkled powder sugar once more. Also came out real tasty. We are all very impressed with Elie and my cooking skills. All in all a lovely dinner.
The other night we enjoyed some freshley backed toll house chocolate chip cookies and milk and have enjoyed endless amounts of chit chatting and laughing and catching up.
It is safe to say i will miss my oportunity to live with him but it will be ok, we all got to do what we got to do. Thats what this career is about......
Tomorrow we are going to explore the fun things of the city like the bean that many of you might remember when Guy and I were here visiting. I look forward to it. Unfortunatly i can't find my battery charger so i can't charge my batteries for camera.
Today i spent a few hours walking in and out of shops, didn't buy anything, got lost more than once, and got a ride from a police man to Elie's theater so we could have dinner together. I got to see the inside of the theater and Elie's make shift office/storage space. It was a fun eventful exciteing day all in all.
Once home we watched this great TV show........wow i finally have time to write about silly mundane things as TV shows about a family with a pair of twins and a set of sextuplets(!!!!!) yes sextuplets.....and they are all half asian, i mean if you are going to populate the world you might as well populate the world with half asian children, they are all so cute.
And......
what you have all be waiting for
I have finally put all my pictures into albums on facebook
(I reserve the right to create another album should some other pictures resurface, just putting it out there)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029115&l=9efc5&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029277&l=55f06&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029284&l=93729&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029313&l=458c0&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029869&l=8f460&id=27100103
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029870&l=1eab8&id=27100103
i know there is a lot, peruse at your leisure
All right talk to you all later.
Hope this post finds you well where ever you are.
Monday, September 29, 2008
i forgot to mention
I also hung out with Anna and met her really adorably ugly little pooch. We had a great time. I love Anna.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
I would like to thank the acadamy....
I would like to thank the academy for my lovely week in New York.
I would like to thank the city for having some really great whether during my stay
I would like to thank the people at At&t for fixing my phone issues giving me a new sim card and finding out how to make my old complicated phone get my voice mail
I would like to thank the people of West Harlem for their kind compliments about how beautiful i am as i walked down the street, something i did not miss while i was in israel
I would like to thank shane for his hospitality and for carrying my suite cases up and down his four flights of stairs at early hours of the morning
I would like to thank super shuttle for not filling the shuttle up so much that people were sitting in each others laps and for getting me to the airport so god damn early so i can write this to you
I would like to thank the man out side the terminal who was so deceivingly kind to help me with my many bags and then ask for money i was not aware i had to pay him
I would like to thank Jet blue for making this messy new terminal situation as convenient and organized as possible
I would also like to thank jet blue for this wonderul wi fi
and i reserve my last thank you to the stupid lady who made my burrito, who with impecable customer service judged the shit out of me for wanting meat and vegitables as well as rice in my burrito.
Really every one, it has been great and i thank you all.
While some of those thank yous were rather sarcastic i do thank all my friends for their hospitalilty and nice catch up sessions.
I spent the week hopping couches but mostly at Shanes place on the upper and i mean upper west side. I stayed with my girls Katie and Norrell that was a lovely girls night of stories. I visited with my darling Steph and ate some yummy wholefoods. I shot a video audition for the movie in california and spent some time in Long Island althought too short as always it seems to be.
oooo i have to board!
I'll finish later
ok since i don't feel ike restructuring this post i will continue from here.
So now i am in chicago. I got to elie's amazing apartment. Quite hotelly but livable. The bed was super comfy and this couch that i am sitting is not making me complain either.
His view is redicoulouse, right in the middle of the busy city of chicago.
Last night we got to enjoy some of the more relaxed homy parts of chicago. I enjoy those parts much more. We, being my and my sister love Betsy, went to be a aprt of the first american audiance ever to see Dirty Dancing the musical. It was fun, something i am glad i didnt pay for, but fun. Then elie and I being starving took the bus wth Betsy back to her area and we went to this real cute hippy diner place, it felt like something out of Santa Cruize. Very yummer grilled cheese sandwhich and milk shake. then saw betsys new digs. Gorgeouse apartment that she has really made into a beautiful home, and she was right, the best part was the rough top. Really great place.
And them home again home again jiggity jig.
To the comfy plush pillows and bedding awaiting us.
I slept in and enjoyed relaxing and am now here on the computere.
The whether was absolutly gorgeous yesterday sunny and warm and today it has gone to cold and gray. I think i might go buy a rain coat.
Oh! I forgot to mention, due to sad complications that can only happen in the city, i do not have any winter clothes with me here is this city we like to call the windy city. I will deal, i am just hoping that the winter i will be experiancing this year is a californian one, so by comparison virtually no winter. I have a couple of long shirts and my long pj pants and jeans but that is about it. I was kicking myself in the butt for packing it for israel but now it seems that life has once agian worked out the way that it should have. see its not always smart to pack light my ferinds (Guy).
anyway i have nothing to do today. Elie is at work till probably late afternoon. so i am home alone. I figureed i might go grocery shopping and organize some of elies stuff here. but thats pretty much it.
Rosh Hashanah is right around the coner, shanah tova to everyone. Elie and i will be having a lovely dinner here. I am planing on making him do brachot which my family does every year but i don't think he has ever done them. I look forward to it. Once again life has turned out how it should, becuase if i weren't here probably elie would be ringing in the jewish new year on his own. this is best.
The Dynamic Duo is together again and are once again complete.
I would like to thank the city for having some really great whether during my stay
I would like to thank the people at At&t for fixing my phone issues giving me a new sim card and finding out how to make my old complicated phone get my voice mail
I would like to thank the people of West Harlem for their kind compliments about how beautiful i am as i walked down the street, something i did not miss while i was in israel
I would like to thank shane for his hospitality and for carrying my suite cases up and down his four flights of stairs at early hours of the morning
I would like to thank super shuttle for not filling the shuttle up so much that people were sitting in each others laps and for getting me to the airport so god damn early so i can write this to you
I would like to thank the man out side the terminal who was so deceivingly kind to help me with my many bags and then ask for money i was not aware i had to pay him
I would like to thank Jet blue for making this messy new terminal situation as convenient and organized as possible
I would also like to thank jet blue for this wonderul wi fi
and i reserve my last thank you to the stupid lady who made my burrito, who with impecable customer service judged the shit out of me for wanting meat and vegitables as well as rice in my burrito.
Really every one, it has been great and i thank you all.
While some of those thank yous were rather sarcastic i do thank all my friends for their hospitalilty and nice catch up sessions.
I spent the week hopping couches but mostly at Shanes place on the upper and i mean upper west side. I stayed with my girls Katie and Norrell that was a lovely girls night of stories. I visited with my darling Steph and ate some yummy wholefoods. I shot a video audition for the movie in california and spent some time in Long Island althought too short as always it seems to be.
oooo i have to board!
I'll finish later
ok since i don't feel ike restructuring this post i will continue from here.
So now i am in chicago. I got to elie's amazing apartment. Quite hotelly but livable. The bed was super comfy and this couch that i am sitting is not making me complain either.
His view is redicoulouse, right in the middle of the busy city of chicago.
Last night we got to enjoy some of the more relaxed homy parts of chicago. I enjoy those parts much more. We, being my and my sister love Betsy, went to be a aprt of the first american audiance ever to see Dirty Dancing the musical. It was fun, something i am glad i didnt pay for, but fun. Then elie and I being starving took the bus wth Betsy back to her area and we went to this real cute hippy diner place, it felt like something out of Santa Cruize. Very yummer grilled cheese sandwhich and milk shake. then saw betsys new digs. Gorgeouse apartment that she has really made into a beautiful home, and she was right, the best part was the rough top. Really great place.
And them home again home again jiggity jig.
To the comfy plush pillows and bedding awaiting us.
I slept in and enjoyed relaxing and am now here on the computere.
The whether was absolutly gorgeous yesterday sunny and warm and today it has gone to cold and gray. I think i might go buy a rain coat.
Oh! I forgot to mention, due to sad complications that can only happen in the city, i do not have any winter clothes with me here is this city we like to call the windy city. I will deal, i am just hoping that the winter i will be experiancing this year is a californian one, so by comparison virtually no winter. I have a couple of long shirts and my long pj pants and jeans but that is about it. I was kicking myself in the butt for packing it for israel but now it seems that life has once agian worked out the way that it should have. see its not always smart to pack light my ferinds (Guy).
anyway i have nothing to do today. Elie is at work till probably late afternoon. so i am home alone. I figureed i might go grocery shopping and organize some of elies stuff here. but thats pretty much it.
Rosh Hashanah is right around the coner, shanah tova to everyone. Elie and i will be having a lovely dinner here. I am planing on making him do brachot which my family does every year but i don't think he has ever done them. I look forward to it. Once again life has turned out how it should, becuase if i weren't here probably elie would be ringing in the jewish new year on his own. this is best.
The Dynamic Duo is together again and are once again complete.
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Israeli Weddings, Cambodians, and The Flight
SO i know it has been a long time since i wrote. Things have been busy and not so busy so i didn't feel it so necessary to update.
My parents got here, it was nice to see them and even thought our time together was short and i had to share them with all kinds of people it was still nice to see them.
Guy and i have been talking every day since i got back. It talk to eachother before bed. There are days that are still harder than others but being able to talk so easily while i have been here and in the same time zone as him is something i am not looking forward to leaving. I have every internet chatting program downloaded to computer and am looking into israeli telephone lines over the internet so it think i am as prepared as possible to return to the states from that stand point.
From another stand point returning is kind of hard. Leaving this country where i have really gotten the hang of living here and entering a new world full of unknowns and decision to make is not as inviteing as one may think. I don't even know where i will be a week from now.....
But i am hanging in there, breathing deep, and trying to stay calm, i think thats all that can be expected of me. I will keep you posted once the powers that be let me in on the plans.
So the past few days and my first encounter with cambodians.
My dads buisness partners from Cambodia (not the tree people the island people) came for the wedding of my dad's buisness partner and very good friend's daughter (did you guys catch all that?). So since my dad's friend was busy giving his daughter away and all that entails we were incharge of showing them a good time in Israel. We took them all over. The first day we took them to this place in the middle of the desert where they grow cherry tomatoes, raise turkeys, keep bees, and make wine. This place wasn't so amazing but it was cool to see how all this can be in the middle and i mean absolutly in the middle of nowhere in the desert. What was cooler was the story of how they got there. The woman that showed us around told us the stroy of how she was a young early 20's idealist she and a few other like her moved out to the Sanai Desert when it still belonged to Israel to start a new living. After the the peace agreement with Eygpt they were moved back in to Israeli teritory. For whatever reasons they still wanted to live by themseves there. There were maybe a few families and they started seeing what they could do for a living, somehow they got to cherry tomatoes, and built greenhoueses and got the government to help build a desalinization(?) plant to remove salt from the only water source they had (a huge saltwater spring under the ground) and now they have grown to about 100 families they bring in workers from thailand and vietnam and they seriousley live there in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if i told the whole story right but i hope you guys got it.
That night we went to what is a Moracan wedding tradition called a Cheena party. Cheena in hebrew means Hena. Basically they have a big party with really sweet pastries and candies and everyone wheres fun traditional marocan clothing and then they put hena in the palm of the bride and guests for luck. it was a lot of fun with everyone danceing to crazy israeli music and just going wild (the open bar helped). Now i have a lovely little orange mark to bring me luck to show or it.
The next day we took the cambodians to the dead sea to float, Masada to see some historical excavation and learn some jewish history, and to a chinese restaurant (They are actually chinese camboadians so they were missing "normal" food) where we met a chinese man who spoke hebrew. (That was very interesting i have never met a hebrew speaking chinese man let a lone a chinese zionist).
The next day was the wedding. Also impressive, so much food and open bar from 12-8 when we finally decided we needed to leave even though the dancing and the drinking was still going. The caremony was simple and short (Israeli). The rabbai sang the whole time and made jokes between the blessings. After that we ate and then because the wedding was on a friday and shabbat starts friday night they needed to close up the play at around 4. So they said we have to close here but if you go to the other side of the fence there is more food and drinks and dancing. The brides friends were absolutly crazy, she was already sitting on the side having a cigerette and her frineds were still dancing to the wee hours of the morning as i understand it.
The place was absolutly gorgeouse and along the beach. We watched a beautiful sunset and had a great time. It was really beautiful and the simple casualness of the israeli wedding lacked in nothing. The bride was absolutly beautiful in her 20's evoking ensamble.
All in all i am glad i stayed to meet the cambodians, be there for the wedding, and spend a little time with my parents.
I am not totally ready to go back yet but what can you do, there comes a time when we all have to face the music and my dad is playing it very loudly right now in the oter room.
So heres to a nice long flight hope i will sleep through, and i will see on the other side of the planet.
see you soon.
My parents got here, it was nice to see them and even thought our time together was short and i had to share them with all kinds of people it was still nice to see them.
Guy and i have been talking every day since i got back. It talk to eachother before bed. There are days that are still harder than others but being able to talk so easily while i have been here and in the same time zone as him is something i am not looking forward to leaving. I have every internet chatting program downloaded to computer and am looking into israeli telephone lines over the internet so it think i am as prepared as possible to return to the states from that stand point.
From another stand point returning is kind of hard. Leaving this country where i have really gotten the hang of living here and entering a new world full of unknowns and decision to make is not as inviteing as one may think. I don't even know where i will be a week from now.....
But i am hanging in there, breathing deep, and trying to stay calm, i think thats all that can be expected of me. I will keep you posted once the powers that be let me in on the plans.
So the past few days and my first encounter with cambodians.
My dads buisness partners from Cambodia (not the tree people the island people) came for the wedding of my dad's buisness partner and very good friend's daughter (did you guys catch all that?). So since my dad's friend was busy giving his daughter away and all that entails we were incharge of showing them a good time in Israel. We took them all over. The first day we took them to this place in the middle of the desert where they grow cherry tomatoes, raise turkeys, keep bees, and make wine. This place wasn't so amazing but it was cool to see how all this can be in the middle and i mean absolutly in the middle of nowhere in the desert. What was cooler was the story of how they got there. The woman that showed us around told us the stroy of how she was a young early 20's idealist she and a few other like her moved out to the Sanai Desert when it still belonged to Israel to start a new living. After the the peace agreement with Eygpt they were moved back in to Israeli teritory. For whatever reasons they still wanted to live by themseves there. There were maybe a few families and they started seeing what they could do for a living, somehow they got to cherry tomatoes, and built greenhoueses and got the government to help build a desalinization(?) plant to remove salt from the only water source they had (a huge saltwater spring under the ground) and now they have grown to about 100 families they bring in workers from thailand and vietnam and they seriousley live there in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if i told the whole story right but i hope you guys got it.
That night we went to what is a Moracan wedding tradition called a Cheena party. Cheena in hebrew means Hena. Basically they have a big party with really sweet pastries and candies and everyone wheres fun traditional marocan clothing and then they put hena in the palm of the bride and guests for luck. it was a lot of fun with everyone danceing to crazy israeli music and just going wild (the open bar helped). Now i have a lovely little orange mark to bring me luck to show or it.
The next day we took the cambodians to the dead sea to float, Masada to see some historical excavation and learn some jewish history, and to a chinese restaurant (They are actually chinese camboadians so they were missing "normal" food) where we met a chinese man who spoke hebrew. (That was very interesting i have never met a hebrew speaking chinese man let a lone a chinese zionist).
The next day was the wedding. Also impressive, so much food and open bar from 12-8 when we finally decided we needed to leave even though the dancing and the drinking was still going. The caremony was simple and short (Israeli). The rabbai sang the whole time and made jokes between the blessings. After that we ate and then because the wedding was on a friday and shabbat starts friday night they needed to close up the play at around 4. So they said we have to close here but if you go to the other side of the fence there is more food and drinks and dancing. The brides friends were absolutly crazy, she was already sitting on the side having a cigerette and her frineds were still dancing to the wee hours of the morning as i understand it.
The place was absolutly gorgeouse and along the beach. We watched a beautiful sunset and had a great time. It was really beautiful and the simple casualness of the israeli wedding lacked in nothing. The bride was absolutly beautiful in her 20's evoking ensamble.
All in all i am glad i stayed to meet the cambodians, be there for the wedding, and spend a little time with my parents.
I am not totally ready to go back yet but what can you do, there comes a time when we all have to face the music and my dad is playing it very loudly right now in the oter room.
So heres to a nice long flight hope i will sleep through, and i will see on the other side of the planet.
see you soon.
Friday, September 12, 2008
ok so i'm not sure how much time i have right now to write but i figured i should because i havn't written all week.
Let's see where to start. I've been back here for almost a week now but feels like way longer. The goodbyes in the airport were as coupld be imagined tearful. It took me a while to get a grip on myself and calm down once i got back too. But each day has been different, a little better for the most part, and i am doing alright.
I spent a night by myself when i first got here just to have some silent time and then joined Guy's family at his house, i won't so the first night was easy, but i think it was the better choice in the end. I am probably am doing the same things i would be doing if i were alone at my aunts but instead there are people around me. This is good. I've also been out with a couple of Guy's freinds since i got back and that was nice as well.
Today i am going to Natanya to spend the shabbat with some old family freinds. Me and the eldest sone used to be bosom buddies around the ages of 9 and 10 and i now havn't seen him for about 5 years. really thats it? feels longer.....anyway they left for israel when right after daniel had his bar mitzvah and now he's 18 so that means about 5 years. thank you for joining me on that wonderful mathamatical journey. So that should be nice. I don't remember the last time i really and trully kept the shabbat no electricity, praying, and the whole megilah. So should be an interesting weekend but i look forward to it.
In other news i am getting back into contact with poeple in the states sending those emails i didn't really want to spend time sending before becuase Guy was around as well as making plans for when i land. I have a coupel of plans sort of in the works. One is flying to NY and a week later in time to spend rosh hashanah with my dear friends elie (i wanted to amke a label but i have no idea how....you will have to show me one of these days) and betsy, i will be flying to chicago. That is the most solid plan. In a less solid itinerary i am returning to NY sending an audition tape to California and hoping that i will get cast in an indie film. I would fly out to california be home for a bit and then return to the original plan and go to chicago after thanksgiving. We will see, I am learning very quickly just how flexable one has to be in feild. Bizarre but i am hanging in there.
Other then that not much else is going on. My parents arrive in a few days and then i get to spend time with them, my fathers cambodian buisness partners, and others. The plan is to show the cambodian buisness partners the highlights of israel in 2 days. Not sure what my parents have planned as this is quite a large country for only 2 days, i mean its small but not that small. So far it sounds like Birthright round 2: in the summer, without Guy, and a lot shorter. We shall see how that goes. I think i will miss the layers and just barely uncomfortable but none the elss unhappy and constant cold of january. who knew it was possable?
Well i guess thats it not that exciting this one.....i guess thats why havn't posted in week, its been relaxing shall we say, sounds better than lazy no?
I did, however, get to posting one album on line of pictures from the trip.
You can see it here:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029115&l=9efc5&id=27100103
And i also got a chance to add some nifty gagdets to this cool blog page (thank you elie). Hope you noticed.
Alright well thats it for now. More after the weekend/when the rents get to town.
Let's see where to start. I've been back here for almost a week now but feels like way longer. The goodbyes in the airport were as coupld be imagined tearful. It took me a while to get a grip on myself and calm down once i got back too. But each day has been different, a little better for the most part, and i am doing alright.
I spent a night by myself when i first got here just to have some silent time and then joined Guy's family at his house, i won't so the first night was easy, but i think it was the better choice in the end. I am probably am doing the same things i would be doing if i were alone at my aunts but instead there are people around me. This is good. I've also been out with a couple of Guy's freinds since i got back and that was nice as well.
Today i am going to Natanya to spend the shabbat with some old family freinds. Me and the eldest sone used to be bosom buddies around the ages of 9 and 10 and i now havn't seen him for about 5 years. really thats it? feels longer.....anyway they left for israel when right after daniel had his bar mitzvah and now he's 18 so that means about 5 years. thank you for joining me on that wonderful mathamatical journey. So that should be nice. I don't remember the last time i really and trully kept the shabbat no electricity, praying, and the whole megilah. So should be an interesting weekend but i look forward to it.
In other news i am getting back into contact with poeple in the states sending those emails i didn't really want to spend time sending before becuase Guy was around as well as making plans for when i land. I have a coupel of plans sort of in the works. One is flying to NY and a week later in time to spend rosh hashanah with my dear friends elie (i wanted to amke a label but i have no idea how....you will have to show me one of these days) and betsy, i will be flying to chicago. That is the most solid plan. In a less solid itinerary i am returning to NY sending an audition tape to California and hoping that i will get cast in an indie film. I would fly out to california be home for a bit and then return to the original plan and go to chicago after thanksgiving. We will see, I am learning very quickly just how flexable one has to be in feild. Bizarre but i am hanging in there.
Other then that not much else is going on. My parents arrive in a few days and then i get to spend time with them, my fathers cambodian buisness partners, and others. The plan is to show the cambodian buisness partners the highlights of israel in 2 days. Not sure what my parents have planned as this is quite a large country for only 2 days, i mean its small but not that small. So far it sounds like Birthright round 2: in the summer, without Guy, and a lot shorter. We shall see how that goes. I think i will miss the layers and just barely uncomfortable but none the elss unhappy and constant cold of january. who knew it was possable?
Well i guess thats it not that exciting this one.....i guess thats why havn't posted in week, its been relaxing shall we say, sounds better than lazy no?
I did, however, get to posting one album on line of pictures from the trip.
You can see it here:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2029115&l=9efc5&id=27100103
And i also got a chance to add some nifty gagdets to this cool blog page (thank you elie). Hope you noticed.
Alright well thats it for now. More after the weekend/when the rents get to town.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Goodbye
Goodbye to the land of strange fashion sense where the language can give you a head ache and all the work men look like they are part of the Mario family.
Two lovely weeks of shopping for groceries without having any clue as to what i'm really buying, of searching a small city for its rarely phenominal sites, of sitting and watching CNN and learning all about the stuff i never bothered to pay attention too, of time spent in the kitchen with metric units and "boardom suprises" that come out rather tasty in the end, and of running through vocab words in a language i can't begin to understand how anyone could speak it. But most of all these past two weeks have been filled with cuddles and kisses and laughing and adventures with someone holding my hand.
I can't say that it doesn't hurt to go. With another 29 hours to be together we are just saying thanks for the chance to have had our past 3 months and 1 week together.
The past few days i spent a lot of time in the house. I was working on a gift for guy most of the time. Putting together a digital photo frame with pictures of us and his freinds/family from home. I also finally found my tree! It wasn't that exciteing and it turned out i had passed it at least once before and hadn't thought twice about it. I made a cheese cake from a box with instructions in Hungarain, it came out really good and quite beautiful if i do say so myself. We did laundry and cleaned the apartment (its fun to watch boys cook and clean ; ) ) Today I met guy at school and we went to the Thermal Baths. Several mineral water baths that differ in temperatures. They were in celcius so i will spare you but they got hotter and hotter as we went and then we went into a suana that was really hot, pretty unbareable actually, with some sort of herbal stuff in the air, kind of hard to breathe, and then we jumped in to a really cold bath....it was nice....relaxing....i don't think guy would ever have done it if i hadn't gone with him. Also it was less than $10 for this lovely place. Soooooooooooo many old people everywhere. Funny how all the old hungarian women look exactly the same. Quite round with little legs.....oh Hungary. I also lost track of the days this week, on wednesday i could have sworn it was tuesday still. And i also got a ticket on the train. SUPER LAME. Apparently when you buy a weekly or monthly pass you are supposed to carry your passport with you as well. They told us to put our passport number on it but failed to mentione that it was invalid if the passport was not on us, when we bought the thing. So i was on my way to meet guy at school and the checker guy came on. he came to me and asked for my ticket and i happily gave it to him. Last week i think i took some 4 or 5 rides and bought only one ticket so i was feeling pretty good that here i was with nothing to fear. Thank god a man who knew english came over to help. The checker man took us both off the train, with me protesting paying the fine of 5000 Forint and stateing that i had no idea i was supposed to have the passport with me. The nice man who knew english was on my side, i think he was trying to get the man to give me a break but nope i ended up paying the stupid money. At the risk of repeating myself, LAME. We can't even complain becuase no one would understand us anyway. Whats also frusterating is all last week i carried my passport in my purse and for some reason i decided to take it out. SUPER LAME. (ps. 5000 forint is less than $40 but its the principal of the matter!) Anyway thats kind of it. I don't think i did much else in the past few days but some grocery shopping and other house wifey stuff....all im missing are the perls.
Tomorrow we are going into Budapest early in the morning so we can spend the day there and do something fun before my flight at 11pm. I need to start packing and really don't have the emotional energy for it. At somepoint i realised i am not looking forward to going back to Israel. sometimes i think it might have been a bad choice to add the extra month. I mean i am going back to Isreal without Guy. All his freind and family have extended warm invitations to hang out or stay at his house with his family but i just don't know if i want to take them up on it. I mean it will be weird no matter what without him, but i don't know............I have a few freinds that i havn't gotten the chance to see yet so i will probably hit them up and get together and really its only about a week until my parents get there so no biggie i guess. Guy says there are no right or wrong decisions just different outcomes.....maybe hes right. Well we'll see i guess. At least in Israel i will be able to call him for cheap.
I am looking forward to Chicago and going back and seeing people in NY. Looking forward to living just me and elie it will be nice. I like the two person life style, these past two weeks i've been like a fly on the wall here, observing 2 roomate living. And i am looking forward to getting my life started, new adventures are ahead of me and the research i have been doing on theaters in the area has gotten me excited so thats good.
Really i am ok, everything will be ok, and i know it. I just have to keep telling myself that and everything will be fine. Guy and I have had our moment in the sun and it has been out of this world and now it is time to see where our lives and dreams lead us. And if its back together in 6 or 7 years, i won't be pissed, that's all i'm saying.
Two lovely weeks of shopping for groceries without having any clue as to what i'm really buying, of searching a small city for its rarely phenominal sites, of sitting and watching CNN and learning all about the stuff i never bothered to pay attention too, of time spent in the kitchen with metric units and "boardom suprises" that come out rather tasty in the end, and of running through vocab words in a language i can't begin to understand how anyone could speak it. But most of all these past two weeks have been filled with cuddles and kisses and laughing and adventures with someone holding my hand.
I can't say that it doesn't hurt to go. With another 29 hours to be together we are just saying thanks for the chance to have had our past 3 months and 1 week together.
The past few days i spent a lot of time in the house. I was working on a gift for guy most of the time. Putting together a digital photo frame with pictures of us and his freinds/family from home. I also finally found my tree! It wasn't that exciteing and it turned out i had passed it at least once before and hadn't thought twice about it. I made a cheese cake from a box with instructions in Hungarain, it came out really good and quite beautiful if i do say so myself. We did laundry and cleaned the apartment (its fun to watch boys cook and clean ; ) ) Today I met guy at school and we went to the Thermal Baths. Several mineral water baths that differ in temperatures. They were in celcius so i will spare you but they got hotter and hotter as we went and then we went into a suana that was really hot, pretty unbareable actually, with some sort of herbal stuff in the air, kind of hard to breathe, and then we jumped in to a really cold bath....it was nice....relaxing....i don't think guy would ever have done it if i hadn't gone with him. Also it was less than $10 for this lovely place. Soooooooooooo many old people everywhere. Funny how all the old hungarian women look exactly the same. Quite round with little legs.....oh Hungary. I also lost track of the days this week, on wednesday i could have sworn it was tuesday still. And i also got a ticket on the train. SUPER LAME. Apparently when you buy a weekly or monthly pass you are supposed to carry your passport with you as well. They told us to put our passport number on it but failed to mentione that it was invalid if the passport was not on us, when we bought the thing. So i was on my way to meet guy at school and the checker guy came on. he came to me and asked for my ticket and i happily gave it to him. Last week i think i took some 4 or 5 rides and bought only one ticket so i was feeling pretty good that here i was with nothing to fear. Thank god a man who knew english came over to help. The checker man took us both off the train, with me protesting paying the fine of 5000 Forint and stateing that i had no idea i was supposed to have the passport with me. The nice man who knew english was on my side, i think he was trying to get the man to give me a break but nope i ended up paying the stupid money. At the risk of repeating myself, LAME. We can't even complain becuase no one would understand us anyway. Whats also frusterating is all last week i carried my passport in my purse and for some reason i decided to take it out. SUPER LAME. (ps. 5000 forint is less than $40 but its the principal of the matter!) Anyway thats kind of it. I don't think i did much else in the past few days but some grocery shopping and other house wifey stuff....all im missing are the perls.
Tomorrow we are going into Budapest early in the morning so we can spend the day there and do something fun before my flight at 11pm. I need to start packing and really don't have the emotional energy for it. At somepoint i realised i am not looking forward to going back to Israel. sometimes i think it might have been a bad choice to add the extra month. I mean i am going back to Isreal without Guy. All his freind and family have extended warm invitations to hang out or stay at his house with his family but i just don't know if i want to take them up on it. I mean it will be weird no matter what without him, but i don't know............I have a few freinds that i havn't gotten the chance to see yet so i will probably hit them up and get together and really its only about a week until my parents get there so no biggie i guess. Guy says there are no right or wrong decisions just different outcomes.....maybe hes right. Well we'll see i guess. At least in Israel i will be able to call him for cheap.
I am looking forward to Chicago and going back and seeing people in NY. Looking forward to living just me and elie it will be nice. I like the two person life style, these past two weeks i've been like a fly on the wall here, observing 2 roomate living. And i am looking forward to getting my life started, new adventures are ahead of me and the research i have been doing on theaters in the area has gotten me excited so thats good.
Really i am ok, everything will be ok, and i know it. I just have to keep telling myself that and everything will be fine. Guy and I have had our moment in the sun and it has been out of this world and now it is time to see where our lives and dreams lead us. And if its back together in 6 or 7 years, i won't be pissed, that's all i'm saying.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Hungarian Adventures #3, 4, 5, 6, etc........
Ok so I've lost count.
I gavn't posted in a while because i really havn't been doing much.
I have to admit i never left to go check out that tree and really i basically spent the last few days in the house. I would like to say i cleaned things or reorganized Guy's shit or invented new house hold luxerys and crochetted Guy some slippers or something......but i didn't. I sat and watched CNN for almost two days, come on CNN was on Democratic National Convention watch like 24/7. I kept wanting to turn off the tv and leave the house but then good ol' Barak would start talking again or his wife or his running mate or his former rival.......Anyway now that i am comletely cought up on world politics, the election, african headlines, and world sports.....i am ready to return to you with some interesting stuff to update on.
We've pushed my flight back by one day....let's see how much more we can delay Guy's and my good bye, no unfortunatly this will be as far back as it gets pushed. Guy has a test the day i fly and i would have to leave the night before at 8 or 9 to get to the airport for a 9am flight meaning i would be sitting in the airport for 8 or 9 hours on my own waiting for the flight. Basically that would suck. so we changed the flight 1 day later not that much more time together but at least we can say goodbye in a more relaxed manner.
As Guy gets used to life in a christian world...with classes on friday and the first day of the workign week being monday and not sunday anymore...we have been studying hungarian like maniacs, i think i might be learning more than i expected to just by helping guy but we are working hard for his first test which is on monday. We have been grocery shopping, went to a lovely shabbat dinner at the some of the friends that Guy came here with, it was a wonderful potluck shabbat dinner.
After having spent the day studying yesterday we decided to go out to a restaurant. We went to Palma over by where his school is. The restaurant was very nice. Wanting to order something special i skipped over the mexican food and the sandwhiches and the italian food and chose the rabbit leg dinner. Yes rabbit leg....i wasn't to keen on the idea of eating rabbit but it was the only thing i found that was really different and wasn't some weird discription like knuckle of ham ragut....no thank you. Guy ordered a spaghetti with meat suace zucchini and black olives. The rabbit was so good. I mean the first bite we said hmm tastes like chicken but the texture and the meat in side was so tasty and.....i didn't get a head ache ; ) The spaghetti was also really good. The we ordered a desert. Also wanting something a little different we ordered sweet gnocchi with some sort of jam in vanilla sauce....also suprisingly tasty. By the end of the evening we were ready to pop and just guess how much all of that cost.....you will not belive it....i didn't even realise how much it was until later when we were home and i was thinking about the price. in Forint it was 4915 about 5000 Forint basically that equals a whopping $30.38 yes my freinds and that includes tip. Let's all go to Hungary for our next meal out what do you think?
Also one day last week on my way back to the apartment (ok the only day last week that i left the apartment) I noticed a salon a couple of door down from Guy's building. I thought i would go in and see if i caould get anyone to understand me. Luckily there was a woman who spoke very good english in fact. I asked if they do waxing here and they did. So i also went and got waxed this weekend. Another adventure although one i had braved before. Anyway the nice lady did a lovely job and that and if we're coming here to eat out we might as well wait to get our next waxing done here too. It cost $13.30 after giving her a 10% tip too. It doesn't matter what i got waxed that is frigin cheap! (what i had done would probably have cost something like $60 in NY)
We also saw a couple of movies while we have been here. I havn't been keeping you all updated on the movies ive been watching my time away but needless to say a lot, some i've heard of and just never got around to watching and some i have never heard of but Guy wanted to see. Guy is a movie downloading guru so it has been quite nice. Since getting to hungary we watched Good Luck Chuck - cute but not Dane Cook at his best. The Bank Job - good british film. Batman (the first one) - fun to watch, old but nicholson is a stellar Joker. Last night we, well i poor Guy fell asleep, saw Definetly Maybe - never heard of it but a really cute chick flick that i think Guy would have enjoyed had he not slept through it and it has some pretty good not so known actors.
Interms of the must see list from the movies we watched in Israel Persuit of Happiness, Stranger than Fiction are at the top of the list. Both movies i hadn't seen yet and was really impressed with them. Big and Groundhogs Day were both better as nastalgia movies and no necessary to watch again. Guy also burned me some movies to watch while i am back in Israel with no boyfreind and nothing to do til my parents get there. i'll let you know how those go.
Other then all that I am doing well, not looking forward to going to back to Isreal to be on my own but there are friends there that i have not really been in tough with becuase of wanting to spend as much time with Guy as possible so i will probably see them in my week alone. Also Guy's family and freinds have invited me to hang with them whenever i want which was very nice and appreciated and will probably take them up on it as well. So far i havn't really missed the US since i've been away, the people in it are a different story, but i think i am starting to feel the need to get out there and start my life. I think its kind of time and as my parents said the traveling fund is running low. Basically i had a dream last night that kind of freaked me out. I was going up for some sort of audition or jury presentation infront of the faculty (thank you Marymount for the education and the nightmares) so of course Kevin was there (god love him) Liz and David are the faces i remember and right as i was put on deck i saw the list that itamized what i was supposed to have prepared. I nothing from the list prepared, i had a resume but no picture, i wasn't dressed apropriatly, i realised i had not prepared any material and had no idea what i was that was supposed to have prepared. Quickly i figured i could pull some old monologues out of my proverbial back pocket but even those weren't sitting well in my memory. And then i had to go infront of them all and tell them that no one informed me of the things that were asked of the actors and that i also didn't have a head shot from them. It was very embarrasing and pretty aweful to wake up from. Its like those showing up the cafeteria of your highschool naked dreams. Needless to say i think its time to go over my monologues and get my audition kit bag together. So i don't have a lack of things to do while i'm in israel on my own for a week or two.
As a last note, i think i have told most poeple over the past weeks, but i wanted to let everyone know that i have made the decision to go to Chicago to join Elie once i get back to the states. Not right away or anything i'll probably spend a week or so in NY before heading to the windy city. But i think its just the right time for me to give a different city a try. I have no obligations in NY as of now just a storage room filled with stuff so now is as good a time as any to go see what a different city has to offer me. The amount of time i will be there for or be with Elie for is still unknown i think i will just leave it open. I know what i want to do with myself just not where quite yet. So i figure i'll do a little exploring before i can't anymore. Just thought i would give the heads up.
Anyway thats really all i got here. Monday i will be enjoying another adventure, the boys have a meeting to go to after class so i will be the one wating at home for the internet guy to come and instal it. I look forward to haveing to deal with someone who doesn't speak a lick of english and i don't think my new found knawledge of hungarian words like colors and adjecives will really help in this case. I'll let you know how that goes.....
Yours no matter what country or state i'm in,
me
I gavn't posted in a while because i really havn't been doing much.
I have to admit i never left to go check out that tree and really i basically spent the last few days in the house. I would like to say i cleaned things or reorganized Guy's shit or invented new house hold luxerys and crochetted Guy some slippers or something......but i didn't. I sat and watched CNN for almost two days, come on CNN was on Democratic National Convention watch like 24/7. I kept wanting to turn off the tv and leave the house but then good ol' Barak would start talking again or his wife or his running mate or his former rival.......Anyway now that i am comletely cought up on world politics, the election, african headlines, and world sports.....i am ready to return to you with some interesting stuff to update on.
We've pushed my flight back by one day....let's see how much more we can delay Guy's and my good bye, no unfortunatly this will be as far back as it gets pushed. Guy has a test the day i fly and i would have to leave the night before at 8 or 9 to get to the airport for a 9am flight meaning i would be sitting in the airport for 8 or 9 hours on my own waiting for the flight. Basically that would suck. so we changed the flight 1 day later not that much more time together but at least we can say goodbye in a more relaxed manner.
As Guy gets used to life in a christian world...with classes on friday and the first day of the workign week being monday and not sunday anymore...we have been studying hungarian like maniacs, i think i might be learning more than i expected to just by helping guy but we are working hard for his first test which is on monday. We have been grocery shopping, went to a lovely shabbat dinner at the some of the friends that Guy came here with, it was a wonderful potluck shabbat dinner.
After having spent the day studying yesterday we decided to go out to a restaurant. We went to Palma over by where his school is. The restaurant was very nice. Wanting to order something special i skipped over the mexican food and the sandwhiches and the italian food and chose the rabbit leg dinner. Yes rabbit leg....i wasn't to keen on the idea of eating rabbit but it was the only thing i found that was really different and wasn't some weird discription like knuckle of ham ragut....no thank you. Guy ordered a spaghetti with meat suace zucchini and black olives. The rabbit was so good. I mean the first bite we said hmm tastes like chicken but the texture and the meat in side was so tasty and.....i didn't get a head ache ; ) The spaghetti was also really good. The we ordered a desert. Also wanting something a little different we ordered sweet gnocchi with some sort of jam in vanilla sauce....also suprisingly tasty. By the end of the evening we were ready to pop and just guess how much all of that cost.....you will not belive it....i didn't even realise how much it was until later when we were home and i was thinking about the price. in Forint it was 4915 about 5000 Forint basically that equals a whopping $30.38 yes my freinds and that includes tip. Let's all go to Hungary for our next meal out what do you think?
Also one day last week on my way back to the apartment (ok the only day last week that i left the apartment) I noticed a salon a couple of door down from Guy's building. I thought i would go in and see if i caould get anyone to understand me. Luckily there was a woman who spoke very good english in fact. I asked if they do waxing here and they did. So i also went and got waxed this weekend. Another adventure although one i had braved before. Anyway the nice lady did a lovely job and that and if we're coming here to eat out we might as well wait to get our next waxing done here too. It cost $13.30 after giving her a 10% tip too. It doesn't matter what i got waxed that is frigin cheap! (what i had done would probably have cost something like $60 in NY)
We also saw a couple of movies while we have been here. I havn't been keeping you all updated on the movies ive been watching my time away but needless to say a lot, some i've heard of and just never got around to watching and some i have never heard of but Guy wanted to see. Guy is a movie downloading guru so it has been quite nice. Since getting to hungary we watched Good Luck Chuck - cute but not Dane Cook at his best. The Bank Job - good british film. Batman (the first one) - fun to watch, old but nicholson is a stellar Joker. Last night we, well i poor Guy fell asleep, saw Definetly Maybe - never heard of it but a really cute chick flick that i think Guy would have enjoyed had he not slept through it and it has some pretty good not so known actors.
Interms of the must see list from the movies we watched in Israel Persuit of Happiness, Stranger than Fiction are at the top of the list. Both movies i hadn't seen yet and was really impressed with them. Big and Groundhogs Day were both better as nastalgia movies and no necessary to watch again. Guy also burned me some movies to watch while i am back in Israel with no boyfreind and nothing to do til my parents get there. i'll let you know how those go.
Other then all that I am doing well, not looking forward to going to back to Isreal to be on my own but there are friends there that i have not really been in tough with becuase of wanting to spend as much time with Guy as possible so i will probably see them in my week alone. Also Guy's family and freinds have invited me to hang with them whenever i want which was very nice and appreciated and will probably take them up on it as well. So far i havn't really missed the US since i've been away, the people in it are a different story, but i think i am starting to feel the need to get out there and start my life. I think its kind of time and as my parents said the traveling fund is running low. Basically i had a dream last night that kind of freaked me out. I was going up for some sort of audition or jury presentation infront of the faculty (thank you Marymount for the education and the nightmares) so of course Kevin was there (god love him) Liz and David are the faces i remember and right as i was put on deck i saw the list that itamized what i was supposed to have prepared. I nothing from the list prepared, i had a resume but no picture, i wasn't dressed apropriatly, i realised i had not prepared any material and had no idea what i was that was supposed to have prepared. Quickly i figured i could pull some old monologues out of my proverbial back pocket but even those weren't sitting well in my memory. And then i had to go infront of them all and tell them that no one informed me of the things that were asked of the actors and that i also didn't have a head shot from them. It was very embarrasing and pretty aweful to wake up from. Its like those showing up the cafeteria of your highschool naked dreams. Needless to say i think its time to go over my monologues and get my audition kit bag together. So i don't have a lack of things to do while i'm in israel on my own for a week or two.
As a last note, i think i have told most poeple over the past weeks, but i wanted to let everyone know that i have made the decision to go to Chicago to join Elie once i get back to the states. Not right away or anything i'll probably spend a week or so in NY before heading to the windy city. But i think its just the right time for me to give a different city a try. I have no obligations in NY as of now just a storage room filled with stuff so now is as good a time as any to go see what a different city has to offer me. The amount of time i will be there for or be with Elie for is still unknown i think i will just leave it open. I know what i want to do with myself just not where quite yet. So i figure i'll do a little exploring before i can't anymore. Just thought i would give the heads up.
Anyway thats really all i got here. Monday i will be enjoying another adventure, the boys have a meeting to go to after class so i will be the one wating at home for the internet guy to come and instal it. I look forward to haveing to deal with someone who doesn't speak a lick of english and i don't think my new found knawledge of hungarian words like colors and adjecives will really help in this case. I'll let you know how that goes.....
Yours no matter what country or state i'm in,
me
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Yesterady's Hungarian Adventures (aka #2)
Yesterday was a far more productive day than i have ever spent Hungary (6 days all together now). I wanted to get up early and see everything i circled in my handy dandy tourist brochure but instead slept till 11, sat on the computer for an hour or so, ate something, blah blah blah......
Either way i decided i was getting out of the house even if it was for just an hour so (baby steps right?) So i left the house around noon.
I walked out side in with plans to find the theater. Instead i took my time wandering down different streets and into interesting looking shops. I never realised how much i love doing that until i got to new york and found myself with nothing to do in union square once a week. I forgot i love this until yesterday why didn't i think of it sooner? Anyway i found some clothes shopps with traditional hungarian garb, i found a beautiful little imported things shop (no idea what else to call it) with masks from venice little faries from Angol (which i later discvered meant england) and other such little gnomes and bears and sparkly things. I found a joke shop, and bought some fruite at a grocery store, a church, and eventaullay the theater as well.
I learned that people really do say what sounds like "see ya!" and really means "good day!" when they greet someone. The man in the pretty store confused me a little. I walked in he said "See ya" and when i walked out he said "Ha-lo" either i'm confused or this place is a little backwards hmmmm........
The grocery store was also an interesting experiance. we were out of fruite at home so i figured why not buy some. Guy taught me the numbers to ten the night before so i knew to ask for 3 and i figured i would just point to the peaches and nectarines. The lady i'm sure thought i was stupid. She looked at me and i followed my plan: pointing to the fruites and saying "Harom?" and showing 3 fingers. Of course i did not think any further than that and when she asked me something in fast hungarian i just kept smiling and pointing to the frute and saying "harom?" I'm sure the lady was thinking something a long the lines of ..."you stupid foreginer. great! you can say 3! what? you want a cookie or something?" The fruite was supposed to cost 521 forent i pulled 520 and she didn't bother about the last forent (nevermind the fact its not worth a goddamn thing, the price is about 2$). Your the ones who can't speak english! don't you be snooty with me! (i'm really not that elitest and intolerant of others)
The church was a random find. I was walking down a pedestrian street and saw above the trees these two yellow clock towers they were quite beautiful so i took a picture of them. As i walked closer i saw that they were connected to a church which was also rather gorgeouse inside. I took some pictures but had to jet out when i phone started to ring. of course.
The theater was also rather beautiful at first i couldn't figure out if it was a church or the theater, the outside was adorned with statutes, after reading my handy dandy tourist brochure i foud out that they are statues of the theater and dance muses (none that i have ever heard of mind you perhapse they are hungarian). I was excited to go inside and take pictures of this old theaters house but unfortunatly it wasn't open ot the public because there were people rehearsing in there. I thought maybe i would pull the American acting student card but that didn't work either. For about a second i thought maybe i would see a show but then the season doesn't start until september 19th. Oh well.
After that i figured i would go home. I didn't even get lost once!!!
Later in the afternoon after the boys came home a amn came by he we learned was from the internet company (this internet is stolen shhhh). We weren't exactly sure what he wanted and the fact that he didn't speak a lick of english didn't help him him explain himself. In the end he checked a couple of things after going back and forth from the car about 4 times, Guy signed something and he left. We learned that maybe we should be more careful about things we sign. anyway that was pretty much the day. I helped guy study his hungarian a little and then we went to sleep.
Today i plan to go out again, there is a tree listed in the handy dandy tourist brochure and i have no idea why, so i thought maybe i would check out what is just so fantastic about this tree. Also Guy's teacher mentioned that there is a Jewish music festival going on in Budapest so we might go there over the weekend.
Well i guess i will head out. I'll let you know how it goes.
Either way i decided i was getting out of the house even if it was for just an hour so (baby steps right?) So i left the house around noon.
I walked out side in with plans to find the theater. Instead i took my time wandering down different streets and into interesting looking shops. I never realised how much i love doing that until i got to new york and found myself with nothing to do in union square once a week. I forgot i love this until yesterday why didn't i think of it sooner? Anyway i found some clothes shopps with traditional hungarian garb, i found a beautiful little imported things shop (no idea what else to call it) with masks from venice little faries from Angol (which i later discvered meant england) and other such little gnomes and bears and sparkly things. I found a joke shop, and bought some fruite at a grocery store, a church, and eventaullay the theater as well.
I learned that people really do say what sounds like "see ya!" and really means "good day!" when they greet someone. The man in the pretty store confused me a little. I walked in he said "See ya" and when i walked out he said "Ha-lo" either i'm confused or this place is a little backwards hmmmm........
The grocery store was also an interesting experiance. we were out of fruite at home so i figured why not buy some. Guy taught me the numbers to ten the night before so i knew to ask for 3 and i figured i would just point to the peaches and nectarines. The lady i'm sure thought i was stupid. She looked at me and i followed my plan: pointing to the fruites and saying "Harom?" and showing 3 fingers. Of course i did not think any further than that and when she asked me something in fast hungarian i just kept smiling and pointing to the frute and saying "harom?" I'm sure the lady was thinking something a long the lines of ..."you stupid foreginer. great! you can say 3! what? you want a cookie or something?" The fruite was supposed to cost 521 forent i pulled 520 and she didn't bother about the last forent (nevermind the fact its not worth a goddamn thing, the price is about 2$). Your the ones who can't speak english! don't you be snooty with me! (i'm really not that elitest and intolerant of others)
The church was a random find. I was walking down a pedestrian street and saw above the trees these two yellow clock towers they were quite beautiful so i took a picture of them. As i walked closer i saw that they were connected to a church which was also rather gorgeouse inside. I took some pictures but had to jet out when i phone started to ring. of course.
The theater was also rather beautiful at first i couldn't figure out if it was a church or the theater, the outside was adorned with statutes, after reading my handy dandy tourist brochure i foud out that they are statues of the theater and dance muses (none that i have ever heard of mind you perhapse they are hungarian). I was excited to go inside and take pictures of this old theaters house but unfortunatly it wasn't open ot the public because there were people rehearsing in there. I thought maybe i would pull the American acting student card but that didn't work either. For about a second i thought maybe i would see a show but then the season doesn't start until september 19th. Oh well.
After that i figured i would go home. I didn't even get lost once!!!
Later in the afternoon after the boys came home a amn came by he we learned was from the internet company (this internet is stolen shhhh). We weren't exactly sure what he wanted and the fact that he didn't speak a lick of english didn't help him him explain himself. In the end he checked a couple of things after going back and forth from the car about 4 times, Guy signed something and he left. We learned that maybe we should be more careful about things we sign. anyway that was pretty much the day. I helped guy study his hungarian a little and then we went to sleep.
Today i plan to go out again, there is a tree listed in the handy dandy tourist brochure and i have no idea why, so i thought maybe i would check out what is just so fantastic about this tree. Also Guy's teacher mentioned that there is a Jewish music festival going on in Budapest so we might go there over the weekend.
Well i guess i will head out. I'll let you know how it goes.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Hungarian Adventure #1
Siya! (hungarian salutation)
So yesterday was an exciteing day. Having had the weekend to get settled and get the new apartment in order, after having said good bye to the variouse parents who had come to help Guy and his flat mate move in, and after having gotten used to what life might be like here for the boys it was time to leave the apartment and take care of some of the other arrangements the boys had to get settled in the city. The first order of buissness was to go to the school to register. Thinking this was only going to take about a half hour or so all three of us decided to take the Villamush (i have no idea if that is right or not) the hungarian electric trolly to the school and from there we would enjoy the day exploring the city.
We got there and stood with all the other students waiting to register as well. We stood around for about 20 minutes, no one having any idea how this all works. We chit chatted about new apartments and things with the other israelis Guy had taken his premed class with back in Israel when all of a sudden a bunch of teachers came out of the building. They collected 20 kids at a time and took them inside. We figured it wouldn't be right for me to take someone's spot in the group so we decided i would sit on the bench outside and wait for Guy to be done with registration.
So i sat down and pulled out my phone and began to play solitare. I turned around and there was Guy "so aparently we start hungarian classes today" Guy gave me his keys, a 5000 forent (hungarian currency) bill (equal to less than 40$) and said ill call you when we get out.
And so this was my first adventure in hungary. On my own i had to find my way back to the apartment. We all know how great i am with trains so you can understand my concern. What i was not aware of was that there is only one train that runs through the city, and i only realised this after trying to ask several hungarians which direction i need. My kind of city don't you think?
After getting on the train i tried to pay for my 250 forent ticket and my money was too large so i got off at one of the stops where i saw a bank out the window. I went inside and again proceeded to talk to non english speaking hungarians. they were rather patient and in the end i got the money changed and got back on the train. I wasn't sure what stop to get off at so the first thing i recognized i got off. Then the rest of my walk home consisted of me saying the name of the street i was looking for with some upward inflection in hope that people would point me in the right direction. I started to feel rather confident in my self once i realised i was on the right street so i started to enjoy the sun and the beauty of the city. I took some pictures, enjoyed a tasty pastry and succeeded in buying a bottle of water and finding the tourist info center. There i got a map and some brochures of what to do in the city. and there they spoke english!
Debrecen is quite the beautiful city really. Its so old and european so its really neat to see the old meat the modern. While i was on the trolly i saw an older woman who was carring her groceries in a wooden basket. Quaint things like that are all around....the old buildigns or old churches sitting right next to the electic trolly tracks and just in site from the mall. Some of the buildings have these elegent fronts and some just look like modern office buildings. I also got to take some pictures of the school before getting back on the train. So green and tree filled. Also there, old buildings that look like something out of hogwarts out door campus next to the sicence labs building. i'll load the pictures soon.
I got home and spent the rest of the day inside. I have also had a couple of cooking adventures here too. Remember the condensed milk i was trying to buy in the store? Well i tryed to make dulce du leche by caramilizing it in the oven. It didn't exactly come out how i wanted it too, kind of runny and leaky all over the place. and the cookies didn't come out as tasty as when i made them in israel, but in the end they weren't all that bad. I also decided to make something yesterday - i still have no idea what it was or what to call it. I took some plain yogurt added sugar and a little bit of flour and egg whites. I put that on top of crushed chocolate waffer cookie crumbs and then put some fruite on top and cookied it in the oven. It came out as this kind of cream meringue pie thing. surprisingly tasty.
Today i thought i would go out and explore the sites of the city but instead stayed home and cought up on my democratic convention news. CNN is the only channel in english here. And also update the blog, of course.
The only other thing i want to mention about strange livings in strange lands is the toilet. The toilets here are quite bizzarre. There is a large bowl with a little whole where the water sits so basically your buisness sits in the bowl until the water pushes it down the whole. That my friends is the ultimate adventure. Guy and I can not get over it.
So yesterday was an exciteing day. Having had the weekend to get settled and get the new apartment in order, after having said good bye to the variouse parents who had come to help Guy and his flat mate move in, and after having gotten used to what life might be like here for the boys it was time to leave the apartment and take care of some of the other arrangements the boys had to get settled in the city. The first order of buissness was to go to the school to register. Thinking this was only going to take about a half hour or so all three of us decided to take the Villamush (i have no idea if that is right or not) the hungarian electric trolly to the school and from there we would enjoy the day exploring the city.
We got there and stood with all the other students waiting to register as well. We stood around for about 20 minutes, no one having any idea how this all works. We chit chatted about new apartments and things with the other israelis Guy had taken his premed class with back in Israel when all of a sudden a bunch of teachers came out of the building. They collected 20 kids at a time and took them inside. We figured it wouldn't be right for me to take someone's spot in the group so we decided i would sit on the bench outside and wait for Guy to be done with registration.
So i sat down and pulled out my phone and began to play solitare. I turned around and there was Guy "so aparently we start hungarian classes today" Guy gave me his keys, a 5000 forent (hungarian currency) bill (equal to less than 40$) and said ill call you when we get out.
And so this was my first adventure in hungary. On my own i had to find my way back to the apartment. We all know how great i am with trains so you can understand my concern. What i was not aware of was that there is only one train that runs through the city, and i only realised this after trying to ask several hungarians which direction i need. My kind of city don't you think?
After getting on the train i tried to pay for my 250 forent ticket and my money was too large so i got off at one of the stops where i saw a bank out the window. I went inside and again proceeded to talk to non english speaking hungarians. they were rather patient and in the end i got the money changed and got back on the train. I wasn't sure what stop to get off at so the first thing i recognized i got off. Then the rest of my walk home consisted of me saying the name of the street i was looking for with some upward inflection in hope that people would point me in the right direction. I started to feel rather confident in my self once i realised i was on the right street so i started to enjoy the sun and the beauty of the city. I took some pictures, enjoyed a tasty pastry and succeeded in buying a bottle of water and finding the tourist info center. There i got a map and some brochures of what to do in the city. and there they spoke english!
Debrecen is quite the beautiful city really. Its so old and european so its really neat to see the old meat the modern. While i was on the trolly i saw an older woman who was carring her groceries in a wooden basket. Quaint things like that are all around....the old buildigns or old churches sitting right next to the electic trolly tracks and just in site from the mall. Some of the buildings have these elegent fronts and some just look like modern office buildings. I also got to take some pictures of the school before getting back on the train. So green and tree filled. Also there, old buildings that look like something out of hogwarts out door campus next to the sicence labs building. i'll load the pictures soon.
I got home and spent the rest of the day inside. I have also had a couple of cooking adventures here too. Remember the condensed milk i was trying to buy in the store? Well i tryed to make dulce du leche by caramilizing it in the oven. It didn't exactly come out how i wanted it too, kind of runny and leaky all over the place. and the cookies didn't come out as tasty as when i made them in israel, but in the end they weren't all that bad. I also decided to make something yesterday - i still have no idea what it was or what to call it. I took some plain yogurt added sugar and a little bit of flour and egg whites. I put that on top of crushed chocolate waffer cookie crumbs and then put some fruite on top and cookied it in the oven. It came out as this kind of cream meringue pie thing. surprisingly tasty.
Today i thought i would go out and explore the sites of the city but instead stayed home and cought up on my democratic convention news. CNN is the only channel in english here. And also update the blog, of course.
The only other thing i want to mention about strange livings in strange lands is the toilet. The toilets here are quite bizzarre. There is a large bowl with a little whole where the water sits so basically your buisness sits in the bowl until the water pushes it down the whole. That my friends is the ultimate adventure. Guy and I can not get over it.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Hungary Anyone?
I would say hello in hungarian if i knew how, but i don't, not yet. this place is crazy, excuse me for being totally steryotypically american but.....no one, and i mean no one, can speak english here, its insane! we went grocery shopping, to the bank in the mall, ate at a restaurant where in true rahamim fashion i learned some vegitables
slonka = ham (thats always the first)
gomba = mushroom
viz = water
sajt = cheese (that one also some how always ends up on the list too)
anyway i am here and safe so all is well. in the next two weeks i look forward to organizing guys life for him while he is at his orientation crash course to learn some hungarian and making alfajores for him as well. we bought what we think are the ingrediants for the cookies. yay fun adventures in a land that seems to have a language that is not connected to any other what so ever! It is quite hard to guess here. it looks like german with long words and umlouts everywhere but there is no connection to any german i know, not saying i know a lot but really.....also the money here is so week its like 160 forent to 1 doller. so like lets say i want to buy something and its 20bucks i am looking at 3000 forent......its just so bizzare you can't even comprihend what the hell your trying to buy.....maybe this is a good place for me. I walked up to a pair of shoes and the price was like 9956 i got so overwhelmed i just walked away. also in the grocery store we were looking for certain foods we know the boys like and it was so complicated to figure out what the things said on them we gave up.....i said maybe this is a good place for a diet. eventually we started just going by pictures and looking for clear packaging. the hardest i spent looking doe something was for the dulce du leche for the alfojores cookies. First i found nuttella so i looked in that area and where the jams were to find maybe just some in a jar like a spread- they have that in israel- nope. Then i decided maybe i would be able to find condensed milk so i looked in the cooking section and the canned goods section - nope. then i took a break. finally i started asking a few people if they spoke english - also nope. took another break. then i decided to check the same aisles i had been to again, maybe i just wasn't looking hard enough you know? when i felt i had trully exauhsted that angle and decided i wasn't going to get any where with out help i started asking for english speakers again. one couple - nope - random guy -also nope - another couple - nope as well.....then i decided i had nothing to lose and i was going to try and get what i want any way. I picked up the caramel syrup i found and a jar of chocolate spread and pointed them. The couple confired for a moment and then started searching the jams. still nothing. then i said ok lets try something else. We learned earlier that milk was tej when we were trying to buy some. so i took a can pointed to it and milk - tej. they confired, quite the think-before-you-do kind of couple. and then they walked up to their friend that worked there (???wtf???) and then finally they walked down this aisle and pointed to whipping cream. that was written in english - great. i said thank you to them for the help, which by the way is very similar to the slang word that mean pussy (excuse my language) in hebrew, and then noticed what seemed like condensed milk in a tube! woo hoo! i'll let you know how the cookies come out.
The end
more on Hungary later
slonka = ham (thats always the first)
gomba = mushroom
viz = water
sajt = cheese (that one also some how always ends up on the list too)
anyway i am here and safe so all is well. in the next two weeks i look forward to organizing guys life for him while he is at his orientation crash course to learn some hungarian and making alfajores for him as well. we bought what we think are the ingrediants for the cookies. yay fun adventures in a land that seems to have a language that is not connected to any other what so ever! It is quite hard to guess here. it looks like german with long words and umlouts everywhere but there is no connection to any german i know, not saying i know a lot but really.....also the money here is so week its like 160 forent to 1 doller. so like lets say i want to buy something and its 20bucks i am looking at 3000 forent......its just so bizzare you can't even comprihend what the hell your trying to buy.....maybe this is a good place for me. I walked up to a pair of shoes and the price was like 9956 i got so overwhelmed i just walked away. also in the grocery store we were looking for certain foods we know the boys like and it was so complicated to figure out what the things said on them we gave up.....i said maybe this is a good place for a diet. eventually we started just going by pictures and looking for clear packaging. the hardest i spent looking doe something was for the dulce du leche for the alfojores cookies. First i found nuttella so i looked in that area and where the jams were to find maybe just some in a jar like a spread- they have that in israel- nope. Then i decided maybe i would be able to find condensed milk so i looked in the cooking section and the canned goods section - nope. then i took a break. finally i started asking a few people if they spoke english - also nope. took another break. then i decided to check the same aisles i had been to again, maybe i just wasn't looking hard enough you know? when i felt i had trully exauhsted that angle and decided i wasn't going to get any where with out help i started asking for english speakers again. one couple - nope - random guy -also nope - another couple - nope as well.....then i decided i had nothing to lose and i was going to try and get what i want any way. I picked up the caramel syrup i found and a jar of chocolate spread and pointed them. The couple confired for a moment and then started searching the jams. still nothing. then i said ok lets try something else. We learned earlier that milk was tej when we were trying to buy some. so i took a can pointed to it and milk - tej. they confired, quite the think-before-you-do kind of couple. and then they walked up to their friend that worked there (???wtf???) and then finally they walked down this aisle and pointed to whipping cream. that was written in english - great. i said thank you to them for the help, which by the way is very similar to the slang word that mean pussy (excuse my language) in hebrew, and then noticed what seemed like condensed milk in a tube! woo hoo! i'll let you know how the cookies come out.
The end
more on Hungary later
Monday, August 11, 2008
wow am i behind....
Ok lots to tell here, i sort of got backed up i have to admit.
So lets make a little to do list:
water skiing (last weekend)
my birthday
my last week of work
parties and other such nonsence
So lets make a little to do list:
water skiing (last weekend)
my birthday
my last week of work
parties and other such nonsence
WATER SKIING (two weekends ago now, i am behind)
So we didn't end up going repelling, the trip got cancled, but since i didn't know anything about it, i don't really know what i've missed, so no big deal really.....
Water skiing was fun. It wasn't like i pictured as i assume all of you are picturing. With a boat in a beautiful blue body of water......nope, no boat, and the water was not even close to blue. We really did have a lot of fun, but the place we were at was really a rather small lake in the middle of a large park. Grassy hills and stuff, kind of reminds me of shorline park. The lake was sort of this milky brown color, mmm mmm good, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so we said why not. it was really ok in the end, except now i have a little cold so i think there might have been something israeli in that water that i am not immune to but everyone else is. this is the third time i am sick in israel in the past 6 months....hmmm...those israelis and their viruses. Anyway, instead of a boat that pulls you they has this machine-pully system, and in the water there were ramps and jumps and things (kind of like a stunt park for water skiiing). Very smart really because that means many people could be in the water at the same time, but it also mean that when you fall you get out of the water and wait another pully to pully you out to the water. So basically it most of the hour we paid for was spent standing in line but we still got a good amount of chances to get out there.
When we got there we watched a pretty lame breifing video and then chose between wake boarding or water skiing. We decided why don't we try the wake board. I figured i switched to snow board a long time ago, so i could probably handel this......i tried it once couldn't get past the loading station and decided to brave their "i told you so" faces and switch to the skies. In the end a good choice. Guy - this being his second time - was able to get out there pretty quickly going off in the distance where once he met the first turn he swiming for shore. Me on the other hand had a harder time of it. It took me a few trys to be able to think about all the different things your supposed to do at once. Hold your arms out, don't lean on the pully, stay squated as long as you can, don't stretch your legs out too soon.........once i was starting to get the hang of it, classic roneet, i fall over and hit my head on of the skiies and quickly grow a tumor like growth on the side of my fourhead. i have come to the conclusion that i can not do anything with out getting hurt quite stupidly or getting sick afterwards, here i did both. three cheers for me!
all is ok now, a week later, you can't even tell, the scab from the scratch is gone the bruse only hurts teeny tiny bit if you push on it. No worries, in the end i was eventually able to get all the way to the first bend. But they told us that we needed to pass between two bouies there and if we see that its not going to happen to let go. As i was coming up to the bend i was looking for the bouies but of course with out my glasses i realised too late that i was significantly far away from the bouies so i let go. Doesn't really matter i am still proud of my self and we had fun and that's the most important part. Also just inc ase your were worries, there are some pretty sweet pictures and funny videos to document the event so you can enjoy the experiance as well.
So we didn't end up going repelling, the trip got cancled, but since i didn't know anything about it, i don't really know what i've missed, so no big deal really.....
Water skiing was fun. It wasn't like i pictured as i assume all of you are picturing. With a boat in a beautiful blue body of water......nope, no boat, and the water was not even close to blue. We really did have a lot of fun, but the place we were at was really a rather small lake in the middle of a large park. Grassy hills and stuff, kind of reminds me of shorline park. The lake was sort of this milky brown color, mmm mmm good, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves so we said why not. it was really ok in the end, except now i have a little cold so i think there might have been something israeli in that water that i am not immune to but everyone else is. this is the third time i am sick in israel in the past 6 months....hmmm...those israelis and their viruses. Anyway, instead of a boat that pulls you they has this machine-pully system, and in the water there were ramps and jumps and things (kind of like a stunt park for water skiiing). Very smart really because that means many people could be in the water at the same time, but it also mean that when you fall you get out of the water and wait another pully to pully you out to the water. So basically it most of the hour we paid for was spent standing in line but we still got a good amount of chances to get out there.
When we got there we watched a pretty lame breifing video and then chose between wake boarding or water skiing. We decided why don't we try the wake board. I figured i switched to snow board a long time ago, so i could probably handel this......i tried it once couldn't get past the loading station and decided to brave their "i told you so" faces and switch to the skies. In the end a good choice. Guy - this being his second time - was able to get out there pretty quickly going off in the distance where once he met the first turn he swiming for shore. Me on the other hand had a harder time of it. It took me a few trys to be able to think about all the different things your supposed to do at once. Hold your arms out, don't lean on the pully, stay squated as long as you can, don't stretch your legs out too soon.........once i was starting to get the hang of it, classic roneet, i fall over and hit my head on of the skiies and quickly grow a tumor like growth on the side of my fourhead. i have come to the conclusion that i can not do anything with out getting hurt quite stupidly or getting sick afterwards, here i did both. three cheers for me!
all is ok now, a week later, you can't even tell, the scab from the scratch is gone the bruse only hurts teeny tiny bit if you push on it. No worries, in the end i was eventually able to get all the way to the first bend. But they told us that we needed to pass between two bouies there and if we see that its not going to happen to let go. As i was coming up to the bend i was looking for the bouies but of course with out my glasses i realised too late that i was significantly far away from the bouies so i let go. Doesn't really matter i am still proud of my self and we had fun and that's the most important part. Also just inc ase your were worries, there are some pretty sweet pictures and funny videos to document the event so you can enjoy the experiance as well.
MY BIRTHDAY
My birthday was really the ebst birthday i could have asked for away from all those i love and hold dear to my heart. It was hard not getting to celebrate with everyone. And i didn't realize just how hard it would be becuase normally i am without half of my freinds (living on two coasts is not easy sometimes) but as hard as it is i always make do. But here i am without any of you!
Guy really tried to make up for me being so far away from home. At midnight i got several calls from his freinds that i have met over time here. I asked him later if he told his freinds to call me he said no that he simply gave out my cell phone number.....either way it was cute and nice to know i'm being thought of.
I took the day off from work so i wouldn't have to deal with snotty nosed kids on my special day. That being said i had no idea what i was taking the day off for. I knew that Guy had some secret plans but he was very good about keeping them that way. I knew we were going to some where for breakfast and then we had evening plans.
I woke up on my day and Guy and i got ready to go. We got to quite the deserted dump of an area. Dirt road, dumpsters on the side of the parking area, and it seemed like we were passing the back enterances of a restaurant strip. I wasn't totally sure about the area but i just put my trust in Guy and hoped for the best. Once we got to the place, it still seemed like we were coming in the back enterance, there was an elevator that wasn't working and stairs. As we took the stairs i saw the words written on the glass doors. LUXOR SPA. We walked through the doors and immediatly we were zen-ififed. Insence and music and the sounds of trickling water. it was easy to forget how gross it was outside. Anyway we had our own private room for 3 hours. The room had a jacousi, a sauna, a little pattio with table and chairs, a couch area, of course zen music and insense, and a bed room with a nice big bead covered in flower petals. We were given robes and slippers, a 50 minute massage, breakfast with wine, and leasure time. it was so relaxing and great, we really had fun. that was the first surprise of the day.
The second surprise of the day was that i got to sit at home for a good 6 or 7 hours while Guy finished all the arrangments for the evening. ; ) Actually i came home to a room filled with ballons and a big Happy Birthday Roneet sign. Funded by him and excuted by his younger brother and sister
At about 10pm Guy came to get me. he took me to the beach near his house but to a much more secluded area than we had been. we walked up to like this gate and when i passed through the door there were candles in the sand lighting the way to a blanket laid out by the water. We sat and enjoyed dinner together, Guy had spent the whole day learning how to make mushroom rizotto, and he brought my favorite kind of ice cream. We enjoyed ourselves eating, laying under the stars, and even a little night swimming. It was really great.
AND IT DOESN'T STOP THERE......
Once we got home there was also my present waiting for me. AFTER ALL THAT THERE WAS STILL A PRESENT. The gift was a video of all our pictures put together in a slide show, the pictures from the states, pictures from our time and travels here, and also a Happy Birthday video he put together with videos from freinds and family from home (as some of you may already know....thanks!) It was a perfect birthday away from home.
Now there will be an easy way to show you all what my last 3 months have been like.
LAST WEEK OF WORK
Work is fine, kind of lame, basically babysitting and making sure no one kills anybody else. The kids eat, and play, and then eat, and then play some more, then they have a snack and play until their parents come. Sometimes people come and do little presentations for them or shows or activities but basically thats the schedule. So as you may be able to tell i am not really fullfilling my full potential at the moment but it is something to do. And i am finishing two days early. So tomorrow will be my last day. The kids are cute and the poeple i work with are really nice, so its not terrible all day long, they even got me a gift for my birthday it was very sweet of them. Also i only work 4 hours a day but feels like so, so much more.
PARTIES AND OTHER SUCH NONSENSE
This week has also been Guys last week in Israel. He threw a get together for all his freinds to come by and spend some time with him and say good bye. His parents also held an evening for all of the family freinds to come and say good bye. And tomorrow he is haveing one last bbq at the beach for all of his closest freinds. I remember what is was like leaving home and getting to new york and feeling all alone. Guy is going with a couple of freinds as well as living with a good freind from the army so i hope that will help. But it is hard to watch someone go through all of this. I wonder what our parents felt like watching us say goodbye. I mean its different in the states where we all kind of leave at the same time. Guy is leaving and the majority of his life is staying right where its been the whole time, where as mine left to go on its own adventures as well. And even though the east coast is like another country, they actually speak english there so thats also not the same. I do hear that Hungary has McDonalds though, right by Guys apartment too. i am truly happy for Guy that he is starting his life and hitting the ground running really. Its about time i start mine too i guess.....I am also excited to go to Hungary it will be another cool adventure to add to my list, its the leaving Hungary part that i am not too excited to check off.
PARTIES AND OTHER SUCH NONSENSE
This week has also been Guys last week in Israel. He threw a get together for all his freinds to come by and spend some time with him and say good bye. His parents also held an evening for all of the family freinds to come and say good bye. And tomorrow he is haveing one last bbq at the beach for all of his closest freinds. I remember what is was like leaving home and getting to new york and feeling all alone. Guy is going with a couple of freinds as well as living with a good freind from the army so i hope that will help. But it is hard to watch someone go through all of this. I wonder what our parents felt like watching us say goodbye. I mean its different in the states where we all kind of leave at the same time. Guy is leaving and the majority of his life is staying right where its been the whole time, where as mine left to go on its own adventures as well. And even though the east coast is like another country, they actually speak english there so thats also not the same. I do hear that Hungary has McDonalds though, right by Guys apartment too. i am truly happy for Guy that he is starting his life and hitting the ground running really. Its about time i start mine too i guess.....I am also excited to go to Hungary it will be another cool adventure to add to my list, its the leaving Hungary part that i am not too excited to check off.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
More Israeli children and somehow i am still standing.
Three days in on the second job, and I am still alive.
Its actually really simple, not like the first one. These kids are younger so its more like babysitting really. I don't do much but repeatedly tell children that if someone hits them on the head by accident it is not the end of the world. I forgot how rough it is to be a child.
The kids come at 8 and hang out and play until either an activity is set up or someone comes to do a presentation. The first day a man came to do a little play about the Mefoozar mi cfar azar which means something like the messy person from messy town but it sounds much better in hebrew. Anyway the kids loved it. Second day the head lady did an "art project" with them. I put it in quotes becuase the kids were given neon colored circular stickers, a sheet of black construction paper, and scissors. Not too complicated, nothing like the kind of stuff we did with the kids at the Jr. Museum i can say that for sure. And today Bruce Willice's Isreali twin brother came in with some fish and a guitar and talked to the kids about the ocean. Then the kids eat breakfast, go out to play till lunch, come in and eat (and this is real food too, their parents must pay alot: Day 1: Schnitzel (breaded chicken breast) and spaghetti, Day 2: a sort of pasta rice and rosted chicken, Day 3: cous cous and meat balls with vegitables), and then play some more until the end of the day. Camp ends at 1:00 and then 1-4 there is day care. They also eat during day care, chocolate spread sadwhiches and cookies. SO pretty much i am eating, cleaning up after kids who don't know how to eat yet, and watching kids play all day long. It is quite the long day 8-4 but i have only done that once so far. Basically all the Israeli woman who work there told me i shouldn't let people walk all over me and that as a volunteer i don't owe anyone anything and to only come 4 or 5 hours a day. So now i am working from 10-2 which is less hours than the other camp. Tomorrow one woman will be missing the whole day (her son is joining the army) so one of the other girls who works only during the day care is coming to replace her, thus leaving her by herself durring day care hours so i am going in from 12-4 tomorrow. No biggie. The kids are rather cute and cuddley, some of them have some behavior problems and i am quickly learning how to deal with them the Israeli way.
My second day, there was a boy, Elad, who generally has a behavioral problem (calling kids retarded and stupid all the time, useing his body instead of his words and other basic bully type behavior) was kicking another boy in the back. I asked him why he was doing that and Elad said because the other boy was sitting in the chair and wouldn't let him pass. I told Elad that chairs are for sitting in and not for playing on and that the boy had every right to sit in the chair. Elad didn't like this very much so he stood on the chair. I told him to get down several times, he wasn't listening, i asked him if he needed me to take him down, he still didn't budge, and so i picked him up off the chair told him that he needed to listen and went about my busness. All of a sudden i turn around and he is up on the chair again, so i tell him to get down and he doesn't so i tell him maybe he needs to sit in the corner, this was the mistake. I picked him up and took him over to a bench against the wall and he flipped out, screaming crying hitting scratching kicking.....someone else came over to see what was the problem i expleained the story, and the others dealt with him. I asked later if i did something or said something wrong and learned that in israel you are not aloud, there is a law within the school system, that you are not aloud to put a child in time out. The other woman said that you use other words like "you need to go over there and think about your behavior" things like that, but you don't say the words "go sit in the corner" that is like a punishment and as i learned does not go very well with the kids.
I am gaining worlds of life experiance here.
In general its a little symple but the people i work with are quite nice and the kids can be cute so no big deal.
Today we went to a place called Mini Israel. Apparently there is also Mini Holland and Mini England and perhaps others. Basically its a bunch of models of places in Israel, cities, mountains, tourist attractions, governmental buildigs, factories, everything really. Rather cute, kind of boring, nice to see once. I'll post some pictures when i get a chance. Guy said the size ratio is like 1/150 or something. Interesting, nice, nothing more.
Then we stoped by the place that Guy used to take his soldiers to do practices with the dogs becuase they happen to be having one tonight. Basically its a big forest, the soldiers hide things or send someone out on a trail and then they hide in a tree or something and the dog and his or her soldier has to go on the trail and find it. Pretty darn cool, also pretty darn scary in the dark. The dogs wear a vest with a glow stick in it. We saw two practices where the dog was on the leash. The dog was looking for something called a Puppy Roll, basically a stuffed peice of fire fighter's hose. The dog started going on the trail through a dirt feild and we walked, briscally, behind the soldier and his comandors. Then the dog really cought on and started to move a little faster, this time up a hill in the woods. So Guy grabs my hand and we start racing through bushes, over rocks, through tall grass, and that nasty plant with all the spirs on it, in the dark. I was sure I was going to break an ankle or something. Thank god one of Guy's soldiers lent me an extra pair of uniform pants, smelly as they were I was glad to be wearing them. Then we watched a dog go off and kind of lose the trail, they had quite a hard time with her actually. Guy said that sometimes they can just get lost with all the smells and the signals from the soldiers can be confusing as well. Also at one point they told us that we were standing rather close to the Puppy Roll, so we moved over. Basically the dogs are trained to attack anything that isn't wearing a uniform, this meant us. I asked Guy what we should do if the dog starts to come at us. He of course said the heroic, and correct, answer, "i would push you aside and bring the dog to me becuase i know how to recive them, I'd rather the dog bite me than you" It was all really interesting and i got the full army experince because i also enjoyed some army style coffee and cake with the boys. It was a pretty fun evening.
Thats basically all thats new. This weekend we are going to go water skiing and what they call here snapling, we call it spelunking or repelling i believe. I am looking forward to it and will tell you those stories once they happen.
Miss you all lots. Hope all is well.
Its actually really simple, not like the first one. These kids are younger so its more like babysitting really. I don't do much but repeatedly tell children that if someone hits them on the head by accident it is not the end of the world. I forgot how rough it is to be a child.
The kids come at 8 and hang out and play until either an activity is set up or someone comes to do a presentation. The first day a man came to do a little play about the Mefoozar mi cfar azar which means something like the messy person from messy town but it sounds much better in hebrew. Anyway the kids loved it. Second day the head lady did an "art project" with them. I put it in quotes becuase the kids were given neon colored circular stickers, a sheet of black construction paper, and scissors. Not too complicated, nothing like the kind of stuff we did with the kids at the Jr. Museum i can say that for sure. And today Bruce Willice's Isreali twin brother came in with some fish and a guitar and talked to the kids about the ocean. Then the kids eat breakfast, go out to play till lunch, come in and eat (and this is real food too, their parents must pay alot: Day 1: Schnitzel (breaded chicken breast) and spaghetti, Day 2: a sort of pasta rice and rosted chicken, Day 3: cous cous and meat balls with vegitables), and then play some more until the end of the day. Camp ends at 1:00 and then 1-4 there is day care. They also eat during day care, chocolate spread sadwhiches and cookies. SO pretty much i am eating, cleaning up after kids who don't know how to eat yet, and watching kids play all day long. It is quite the long day 8-4 but i have only done that once so far. Basically all the Israeli woman who work there told me i shouldn't let people walk all over me and that as a volunteer i don't owe anyone anything and to only come 4 or 5 hours a day. So now i am working from 10-2 which is less hours than the other camp. Tomorrow one woman will be missing the whole day (her son is joining the army) so one of the other girls who works only during the day care is coming to replace her, thus leaving her by herself durring day care hours so i am going in from 12-4 tomorrow. No biggie. The kids are rather cute and cuddley, some of them have some behavior problems and i am quickly learning how to deal with them the Israeli way.
My second day, there was a boy, Elad, who generally has a behavioral problem (calling kids retarded and stupid all the time, useing his body instead of his words and other basic bully type behavior) was kicking another boy in the back. I asked him why he was doing that and Elad said because the other boy was sitting in the chair and wouldn't let him pass. I told Elad that chairs are for sitting in and not for playing on and that the boy had every right to sit in the chair. Elad didn't like this very much so he stood on the chair. I told him to get down several times, he wasn't listening, i asked him if he needed me to take him down, he still didn't budge, and so i picked him up off the chair told him that he needed to listen and went about my busness. All of a sudden i turn around and he is up on the chair again, so i tell him to get down and he doesn't so i tell him maybe he needs to sit in the corner, this was the mistake. I picked him up and took him over to a bench against the wall and he flipped out, screaming crying hitting scratching kicking.....someone else came over to see what was the problem i expleained the story, and the others dealt with him. I asked later if i did something or said something wrong and learned that in israel you are not aloud, there is a law within the school system, that you are not aloud to put a child in time out. The other woman said that you use other words like "you need to go over there and think about your behavior" things like that, but you don't say the words "go sit in the corner" that is like a punishment and as i learned does not go very well with the kids.
I am gaining worlds of life experiance here.
In general its a little symple but the people i work with are quite nice and the kids can be cute so no big deal.
Today we went to a place called Mini Israel. Apparently there is also Mini Holland and Mini England and perhaps others. Basically its a bunch of models of places in Israel, cities, mountains, tourist attractions, governmental buildigs, factories, everything really. Rather cute, kind of boring, nice to see once. I'll post some pictures when i get a chance. Guy said the size ratio is like 1/150 or something. Interesting, nice, nothing more.
Then we stoped by the place that Guy used to take his soldiers to do practices with the dogs becuase they happen to be having one tonight. Basically its a big forest, the soldiers hide things or send someone out on a trail and then they hide in a tree or something and the dog and his or her soldier has to go on the trail and find it. Pretty darn cool, also pretty darn scary in the dark. The dogs wear a vest with a glow stick in it. We saw two practices where the dog was on the leash. The dog was looking for something called a Puppy Roll, basically a stuffed peice of fire fighter's hose. The dog started going on the trail through a dirt feild and we walked, briscally, behind the soldier and his comandors. Then the dog really cought on and started to move a little faster, this time up a hill in the woods. So Guy grabs my hand and we start racing through bushes, over rocks, through tall grass, and that nasty plant with all the spirs on it, in the dark. I was sure I was going to break an ankle or something. Thank god one of Guy's soldiers lent me an extra pair of uniform pants, smelly as they were I was glad to be wearing them. Then we watched a dog go off and kind of lose the trail, they had quite a hard time with her actually. Guy said that sometimes they can just get lost with all the smells and the signals from the soldiers can be confusing as well. Also at one point they told us that we were standing rather close to the Puppy Roll, so we moved over. Basically the dogs are trained to attack anything that isn't wearing a uniform, this meant us. I asked Guy what we should do if the dog starts to come at us. He of course said the heroic, and correct, answer, "i would push you aside and bring the dog to me becuase i know how to recive them, I'd rather the dog bite me than you" It was all really interesting and i got the full army experince because i also enjoyed some army style coffee and cake with the boys. It was a pretty fun evening.
Thats basically all thats new. This weekend we are going to go water skiing and what they call here snapling, we call it spelunking or repelling i believe. I am looking forward to it and will tell you those stories once they happen.
Miss you all lots. Hope all is well.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
We embark on our last trip before i start work again...
We decided to go visit the north. In the North there are many nice things. The Kineret, a lot of Kibbutzim, Haifa, The Joradan River and many ruins and other interesting things to see. The North, if i am correct in remembering all of the fantistic history i learned while i was here on taglit, is where the first bits and peices of the land are that the Jews were given to live in by the arabs in the begining. The Kineret is special because basically its a big lake where Israel gets most of its water from. Also, FIF, (Fun Israel Fact) because of how preciouse water is here in this giant state of desert there are a lot of advertisements to remind Israelis to concerve water, they are quite dramatic. In big red and blck letters the ominouse message is written "Israel is moving from red to black!" Anyway back to our trip.......
So we left today, Guy and I found ourselves once again, in a car just us, the open road, the radio, and some frosted flakes we packed for the ride. Except this time the music was in Hebrew, the car belonged to us, and the frosted flakes were a little less frosted than we Americans are used to. Also (FIF) the ride cross country here would only take about 3 hours, maybe less. And for kicks, let's say we are talking north to south. about 7 hours, maybe less. Not in anyway close to the 312 hours we took to cross the USA.
So, first stop was some roman ruins in Bet She'an. There was a roman theater, a little brush-up on my theater history knowledge, some bath houses, a main street, a street named after Guy (he eventually told me that his name means valley in Hebrew and so Guy Street was in truth Valley Street. Go figure it was between two mountains....), a market place, and temple, etc. Even though it was rather deathly hot it was quite nice and rather beautiful, those romans were quite genius i would have to say. The latrine in the bathhouse, absolutely remarkable, with a sewage system and a wall with wooden slats that stuck out with space between for your bottom.....(i am sure you can imagine yourselves how it all worked out)
Second stop, i was a little skeptical of at first.
Roneet: Guy where are we going now?
Guy: to Gesher Hayashan (the old bridge)
Roneet: what are we going to do there?
Guy: I'm not really sure, there's like a tour and then we make fuccacia bread and its like 3 hours....
A little vague, but in the end rather accurate. But there was much more to it than that.
Gesher Hayashan used to be the only place called Gesher. There was a kibbutz ((FIF) Kibbutz: is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The kibbutz is a form of communal living that combines socialism and Zionism but most of them have stopped functioning in the way they were originally started) , a transportation center (the last stop in Israel before traveling to Jordan, when the two countries were at peace of course), and a huge electricity dam. This was all before Israel became a state. (Please note i learned about all these things in Hebrew so if the wording sounds a little awkward please forgive my English as i do believe it is getting worse and worse as the days pass.)
This place is literally right on the border of Jordan and Israel. So we learned all about the people living there and how they came to live there and how they came to be evacuated during the war of independence. We learned about the dam and its builder and how during the British mandate it powered 90% of Israel. We learned about the bridges built by the Romans and the British giving the place its name. And we also learned how to make fuccacia bread, as was promised by Guy from the beginning. All in all quite the family attraction but we had a nice time anyway. When the people who were evacuated during various wars and open fire, decided to finally return home they decided to rebuild their Kibbutz a little farther from the border and thus it is called Old Gesher, across the street from New Gesher.
From there we moved on to Guy's friends dorm room in a kibbutz next to the Kineret. The room was basically a small room with kitchen and bathroom, large enough, nice really. We went out with some friends of Guy's from the army and then slept the night there. The next day we went swimming in the Jordan River visited Guy's friend that we stayed with in Vegas and ate a wonderful lunch by him. Then it was off to Haifa to visit the Technion exchange students that stayed in my house for the past few summers. We had a nice time with them, a nice dinner, a night walk on campus to a hill where we sat, drank wine and looked out over the city. It was totally beautiful with all the lights, it looked exactly like the emerald city or something accept bright white or silver. Too bad all the lights are from a plant and glow so beautifully because of all the pollution in the air.
The next day we met with another student who, since her stay with my family, has graduated. Then we went to some view points in a Druz city (i have no idea how to say that, where Druz (the religion? this may not even be the name in english) live). An Arabic area anyway, not dangerous though, no worries.
And that was it, we headed home.
I would like you all to know that i no longer have my iphone, yes i have sold my baby. It was a sad moment but the kid with the lame Mohawk-like hair-cut and shaved shapes on the side of his head seemed very happy, and i got the 1550 shekels for it. so if i wait until the dollar goes down again it will equal close to $500. The dollar is now at 3.5 shekels/$ so its just under $450. Not bad.
Anyway thats the exciting life that i have been leading, and tomorrow i go back to Israeli children and bus rides. I am interested to see what tomorrow will be like, what the kids will be like, and what the hell i will be doing there. We shall see.
Hope this blog post finds you well.
Good night Lilah Tov לילה טוב
So we left today, Guy and I found ourselves once again, in a car just us, the open road, the radio, and some frosted flakes we packed for the ride. Except this time the music was in Hebrew, the car belonged to us, and the frosted flakes were a little less frosted than we Americans are used to. Also (FIF) the ride cross country here would only take about 3 hours, maybe less. And for kicks, let's say we are talking north to south. about 7 hours, maybe less. Not in anyway close to the 312 hours we took to cross the USA.
So, first stop was some roman ruins in Bet She'an. There was a roman theater, a little brush-up on my theater history knowledge, some bath houses, a main street, a street named after Guy (he eventually told me that his name means valley in Hebrew and so Guy Street was in truth Valley Street. Go figure it was between two mountains....), a market place, and temple, etc. Even though it was rather deathly hot it was quite nice and rather beautiful, those romans were quite genius i would have to say. The latrine in the bathhouse, absolutely remarkable, with a sewage system and a wall with wooden slats that stuck out with space between for your bottom.....(i am sure you can imagine yourselves how it all worked out)
Second stop, i was a little skeptical of at first.
Roneet: Guy where are we going now?
Guy: to Gesher Hayashan (the old bridge)
Roneet: what are we going to do there?
Guy: I'm not really sure, there's like a tour and then we make fuccacia bread and its like 3 hours....
A little vague, but in the end rather accurate. But there was much more to it than that.
Gesher Hayashan used to be the only place called Gesher. There was a kibbutz ((FIF) Kibbutz: is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The kibbutz is a form of communal living that combines socialism and Zionism but most of them have stopped functioning in the way they were originally started) , a transportation center (the last stop in Israel before traveling to Jordan, when the two countries were at peace of course), and a huge electricity dam. This was all before Israel became a state. (Please note i learned about all these things in Hebrew so if the wording sounds a little awkward please forgive my English as i do believe it is getting worse and worse as the days pass.)
This place is literally right on the border of Jordan and Israel. So we learned all about the people living there and how they came to live there and how they came to be evacuated during the war of independence. We learned about the dam and its builder and how during the British mandate it powered 90% of Israel. We learned about the bridges built by the Romans and the British giving the place its name. And we also learned how to make fuccacia bread, as was promised by Guy from the beginning. All in all quite the family attraction but we had a nice time anyway. When the people who were evacuated during various wars and open fire, decided to finally return home they decided to rebuild their Kibbutz a little farther from the border and thus it is called Old Gesher, across the street from New Gesher.
From there we moved on to Guy's friends dorm room in a kibbutz next to the Kineret. The room was basically a small room with kitchen and bathroom, large enough, nice really. We went out with some friends of Guy's from the army and then slept the night there. The next day we went swimming in the Jordan River visited Guy's friend that we stayed with in Vegas and ate a wonderful lunch by him. Then it was off to Haifa to visit the Technion exchange students that stayed in my house for the past few summers. We had a nice time with them, a nice dinner, a night walk on campus to a hill where we sat, drank wine and looked out over the city. It was totally beautiful with all the lights, it looked exactly like the emerald city or something accept bright white or silver. Too bad all the lights are from a plant and glow so beautifully because of all the pollution in the air.
The next day we met with another student who, since her stay with my family, has graduated. Then we went to some view points in a Druz city (i have no idea how to say that, where Druz (the religion? this may not even be the name in english) live). An Arabic area anyway, not dangerous though, no worries.
And that was it, we headed home.
I would like you all to know that i no longer have my iphone, yes i have sold my baby. It was a sad moment but the kid with the lame Mohawk-like hair-cut and shaved shapes on the side of his head seemed very happy, and i got the 1550 shekels for it. so if i wait until the dollar goes down again it will equal close to $500. The dollar is now at 3.5 shekels/$ so its just under $450. Not bad.
Anyway thats the exciting life that i have been leading, and tomorrow i go back to Israeli children and bus rides. I am interested to see what tomorrow will be like, what the kids will be like, and what the hell i will be doing there. We shall see.
Hope this blog post finds you well.
Good night Lilah Tov לילה טוב
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Hello hello......
Eilat was great!
Our hotel was a little shabby but we got a really great price, super cheap for a family room. There was a pull out couch a refirgerator and seperate bed room. We had a little trouble with the management at first. Quite a silly story really. We took a bus at 6:30am from Rishon (where guy lives) to Eilat - about a 5 hour ride (of course i slept the whole time). We got in at around 11am and went to check in, they said the rooms weren't ready but we could leave our stuff there and come back later, great. We went to the beach, sat in the sun, swam in the cool water (cold water compaired to the rest of the Israeli waters), enjoyed some Israeli Pizza Hut with sesamee and Za'atar on it, yum yum, and basically relaxed. When we came back to the Hotel at 3:40pm to get the rooms we went up to the desk said we had reservations and wanted rooms now. They said we don't have any rooms for you. We said no we checked in earlier they told us to come back after 3 so here we are. She said rooms weren't ready you are welcome to have a seat and wait. We being sticky and salty were a little put off by this so we began to ask questions and things, the manager comes out and just starts at us with it doesn't interest me what time you got here or when you made the reservations, read the sign, we will give you rooms when we have them availble. So of course after reading the sign carefully Guy decides to point out that the sign says rooms are given out after three, so the man says yes thats exactly what is written there after three we will start giving out the rooms (in hebrew things are a little more confusing, it was all up to interpretation really (BS)) Anyway this is when Guy decided to step back and let the other guy we were with take care me and the other girl were all ready sitting on of the couches in lobby at this point. Anyway in the end 20 min later they gave us one room. And what a room it was. This was the nice big room i mentioned above. It doesn't stop there. We get in, we look around, not bad, we turn on the water in the tub BROWN. ok ok sometimes, old hotels, takes a minute cause the pipes are old, whatever......25 MIN LATER still brown. The fixer dude came up to take a look, and even he said it was a crappy hotel and managers are in and out all the time there. Interesting to say the least. In the end after the other couple moved through 2 different rooms (one had no air conditioner, one was on a floor with a bunch of loud high school kids) all in all it wasn't so bad a stay. The hotel was realy close to the Mall there and the boardwalk and the beach, so it was ok really, just funny.
We enjoyed a lot of time on the beach, the taxless shopping (tax in israel is 15.5% and for some reason Eilat has none), and other fun things.
Casa Do Brazil is a restaurant i think they have in Las Vegas and maybe some other places but this place is phenominal! Its an all you can eat meatery (i guess). You pay a fixed price for some simple salades on the table, potatoes, salad, chili, bread....and waiters come around with fresh off the grill meat. We ate steak, veal, lamb, liver, chicken, chicken hearts (so yummy), sausege etc.......I decided i've eaten enough meat for the rest of my life i can go vegitarian now and it wouldn't make a difference. We also ordered wine a dessert of course. And becuase Guy doesn't really drink wine and didn't like either of the ones we got i had two glasses of wine. Needless to say it was a fun night.
The next day Guy and i went to the place called King's City. Its kind of a weird place and hard to describe. His parents told us we should go and baught us the tickets. We asked what is it. They said it was hard to describe but its nice. When we were done we also couldn't describe it, but it was nice. Here check it out for yourself http://www.kingscity.co.il/en/index.asp. This will give you the best idea of what it was without actually taking you there. Even better, this way you won't have to deal with all the crazy Israelis ; )
The two night and three day trip was really great, short and sweet. I bought a couple of dresses in the shuk (israeli market) there and in the mall i bought some Sabon prouducts for like 20 bucks sweet deal huh?
Once we got back we went to another hard to describe place with Guy's family. Its like a natural water park i guess, they have a couple of water slides that you can ride for a sheckel but mostly its like a big river i guess with water falls and narrow water passages, really beautiful, cool refreshing fresh water with little fish that come and nibble your toes......we had a nice time and i am super tan ; )
Thats pretty much the update.....
-I am trying to sell my old iphone here so i can get a new one when i get back. We put in add in the Israeli Ebay site just to see what would happen, with 20 minutes we had 4 calls about it, sweet huh? My dad might sell it for more in cambodia, fun.
-I saw batman, Heath was great just as everyone said, Isreali movie theaters are weird, there is an intermition in the middle of any movie more than 2 hours long, popcorn crunching and loud whispering can be heard through out the movie, but eventually you learn to ignore it. Oh and seeing a movie in the theater is just as expensive here as it is there.
and thats really it.
one more week and then i start camp again, i'm hoping it will be ok, the younger ones will be less able to understand me i think and less flexible about bad hebrew so this will be interesting.
ok i think i should go find Guy now and let his siblings to get to their computer ; )
TTFN
xoxo
Our hotel was a little shabby but we got a really great price, super cheap for a family room. There was a pull out couch a refirgerator and seperate bed room. We had a little trouble with the management at first. Quite a silly story really. We took a bus at 6:30am from Rishon (where guy lives) to Eilat - about a 5 hour ride (of course i slept the whole time). We got in at around 11am and went to check in, they said the rooms weren't ready but we could leave our stuff there and come back later, great. We went to the beach, sat in the sun, swam in the cool water (cold water compaired to the rest of the Israeli waters), enjoyed some Israeli Pizza Hut with sesamee and Za'atar on it, yum yum, and basically relaxed. When we came back to the Hotel at 3:40pm to get the rooms we went up to the desk said we had reservations and wanted rooms now. They said we don't have any rooms for you. We said no we checked in earlier they told us to come back after 3 so here we are. She said rooms weren't ready you are welcome to have a seat and wait. We being sticky and salty were a little put off by this so we began to ask questions and things, the manager comes out and just starts at us with it doesn't interest me what time you got here or when you made the reservations, read the sign, we will give you rooms when we have them availble. So of course after reading the sign carefully Guy decides to point out that the sign says rooms are given out after three, so the man says yes thats exactly what is written there after three we will start giving out the rooms (in hebrew things are a little more confusing, it was all up to interpretation really (BS)) Anyway this is when Guy decided to step back and let the other guy we were with take care me and the other girl were all ready sitting on of the couches in lobby at this point. Anyway in the end 20 min later they gave us one room. And what a room it was. This was the nice big room i mentioned above. It doesn't stop there. We get in, we look around, not bad, we turn on the water in the tub BROWN. ok ok sometimes, old hotels, takes a minute cause the pipes are old, whatever......25 MIN LATER still brown. The fixer dude came up to take a look, and even he said it was a crappy hotel and managers are in and out all the time there. Interesting to say the least. In the end after the other couple moved through 2 different rooms (one had no air conditioner, one was on a floor with a bunch of loud high school kids) all in all it wasn't so bad a stay. The hotel was realy close to the Mall there and the boardwalk and the beach, so it was ok really, just funny.
We enjoyed a lot of time on the beach, the taxless shopping (tax in israel is 15.5% and for some reason Eilat has none), and other fun things.
Casa Do Brazil is a restaurant i think they have in Las Vegas and maybe some other places but this place is phenominal! Its an all you can eat meatery (i guess). You pay a fixed price for some simple salades on the table, potatoes, salad, chili, bread....and waiters come around with fresh off the grill meat. We ate steak, veal, lamb, liver, chicken, chicken hearts (so yummy), sausege etc.......I decided i've eaten enough meat for the rest of my life i can go vegitarian now and it wouldn't make a difference. We also ordered wine a dessert of course. And becuase Guy doesn't really drink wine and didn't like either of the ones we got i had two glasses of wine. Needless to say it was a fun night.
The next day Guy and i went to the place called King's City. Its kind of a weird place and hard to describe. His parents told us we should go and baught us the tickets. We asked what is it. They said it was hard to describe but its nice. When we were done we also couldn't describe it, but it was nice. Here check it out for yourself http://www.kingscity.co.il/en/index.asp. This will give you the best idea of what it was without actually taking you there. Even better, this way you won't have to deal with all the crazy Israelis ; )
The two night and three day trip was really great, short and sweet. I bought a couple of dresses in the shuk (israeli market) there and in the mall i bought some Sabon prouducts for like 20 bucks sweet deal huh?
Once we got back we went to another hard to describe place with Guy's family. Its like a natural water park i guess, they have a couple of water slides that you can ride for a sheckel but mostly its like a big river i guess with water falls and narrow water passages, really beautiful, cool refreshing fresh water with little fish that come and nibble your toes......we had a nice time and i am super tan ; )
Thats pretty much the update.....
-I am trying to sell my old iphone here so i can get a new one when i get back. We put in add in the Israeli Ebay site just to see what would happen, with 20 minutes we had 4 calls about it, sweet huh? My dad might sell it for more in cambodia, fun.
-I saw batman, Heath was great just as everyone said, Isreali movie theaters are weird, there is an intermition in the middle of any movie more than 2 hours long, popcorn crunching and loud whispering can be heard through out the movie, but eventually you learn to ignore it. Oh and seeing a movie in the theater is just as expensive here as it is there.
and thats really it.
one more week and then i start camp again, i'm hoping it will be ok, the younger ones will be less able to understand me i think and less flexible about bad hebrew so this will be interesting.
ok i think i should go find Guy now and let his siblings to get to their computer ; )
TTFN
xoxo
Sunday, July 20, 2008
ok....
So here we go.
Camp: the kids were adorable and really figured out how to focus at least half as much as was really neccessary in the end. so they were quiet for whole scenes sometimes!! No really the kids were great the costumes and sets really came together in the end. i was pretty impressed. Also when the guy in charge stood up to thank people he was saying names and stuff and then all the kids said and roneet and then they all clapped and cheered for me. which was really nice. they also gave me a present (some bath stuff) and the camp director asked me if i would want to to work there with a group at somepoint. I honestly didn't really know what she meant, like diuring the year? for the next month or two? for pay? i don't know i was kind of taken a back by the offer at the time but it was nice to have it happen. Also a few of the kids told me to come back next year and gave me notes saying you were a really great counselor and i wish you luck and happyness in the future and i love you. super cute!
Shlomo Artsy: the concert was really cool even though i only knew 2 of the songs out of a 2 hour concert. it was in an amphatheater right by the sea so pretty beautiful area with a nice breese from the water. When we got there they had free food and drinks, little keychain lights, cushions to sit on the stone seats with, and bottles of water. neat! the food was pretty good and once the concert started poeple started using their key chain lights as lighters it was really pretty. everyone had a really good time and the music was really fun even though i couldn't really understand it.
6th months: We had a really special night planned by Guy, in a very quite far away from everything spot. Quite romantic and beautiful. We ate dinner cooked by Guy himself and then came home and watched a movie (no love movie or anything we saw The Bubble, very very good israeli film). It was the perfect way to celebrate.
Zohan: i refuse to give that movie any more time and energy.
Other than all that everything continues to be really great. We had quite the relaxing weekend, caught up on sleep, watched a good handful of movies, and just relaxed. Monday is Eilat so i am a-ok with taking the time to rest and not do anything. We are going to take a bus there so we don't have to deal with gas or parking or anything. I think its about a 4 hour ride, no big deal from me but probably a big deal for the israelis ; ) We are going to stay at the Red Hotel (Malon Adumah) and even though Guy and I still have no idea what it is, it has been recomended to go The City of Kings (Ir ha melachim). I'll let you know what it is when we get back!
OK thats it for now. Take care all, until next time.
Camp: the kids were adorable and really figured out how to focus at least half as much as was really neccessary in the end. so they were quiet for whole scenes sometimes!! No really the kids were great the costumes and sets really came together in the end. i was pretty impressed. Also when the guy in charge stood up to thank people he was saying names and stuff and then all the kids said and roneet and then they all clapped and cheered for me. which was really nice. they also gave me a present (some bath stuff) and the camp director asked me if i would want to to work there with a group at somepoint. I honestly didn't really know what she meant, like diuring the year? for the next month or two? for pay? i don't know i was kind of taken a back by the offer at the time but it was nice to have it happen. Also a few of the kids told me to come back next year and gave me notes saying you were a really great counselor and i wish you luck and happyness in the future and i love you. super cute!
Shlomo Artsy: the concert was really cool even though i only knew 2 of the songs out of a 2 hour concert. it was in an amphatheater right by the sea so pretty beautiful area with a nice breese from the water. When we got there they had free food and drinks, little keychain lights, cushions to sit on the stone seats with, and bottles of water. neat! the food was pretty good and once the concert started poeple started using their key chain lights as lighters it was really pretty. everyone had a really good time and the music was really fun even though i couldn't really understand it.
6th months: We had a really special night planned by Guy, in a very quite far away from everything spot. Quite romantic and beautiful. We ate dinner cooked by Guy himself and then came home and watched a movie (no love movie or anything we saw The Bubble, very very good israeli film). It was the perfect way to celebrate.
Zohan: i refuse to give that movie any more time and energy.
Other than all that everything continues to be really great. We had quite the relaxing weekend, caught up on sleep, watched a good handful of movies, and just relaxed. Monday is Eilat so i am a-ok with taking the time to rest and not do anything. We are going to take a bus there so we don't have to deal with gas or parking or anything. I think its about a 4 hour ride, no big deal from me but probably a big deal for the israelis ; ) We are going to stay at the Red Hotel (Malon Adumah) and even though Guy and I still have no idea what it is, it has been recomended to go The City of Kings (Ir ha melachim). I'll let you know what it is when we get back!
OK thats it for now. Take care all, until next time.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
not a lot of time right now but......
highlights: (more later)
Camp ended: glad to be done but quite a nice experiance in the end
2 and 1/2 week break: looking forward to sleeping and traveling in israel
The Zohan: Guy and I just watched, it was all we could do to not fall asleep.
Quite bad, could not have been any less authentic. Thumbs down on this one Adam.
Monday: Eilat for 2 nights and three days with another couple, some kids guy went to highschool with, looking forward to it. Either i have never been there or i went once when i was very little.
More later, hopfully before we leave.
Hope you are well. Miss you tons.
Camp ended: glad to be done but quite a nice experiance in the end
2 and 1/2 week break: looking forward to sleeping and traveling in israel
The Zohan: Guy and I just watched, it was all we could do to not fall asleep.
Quite bad, could not have been any less authentic. Thumbs down on this one Adam.
Monday: Eilat for 2 nights and three days with another couple, some kids guy went to highschool with, looking forward to it. Either i have never been there or i went once when i was very little.
More later, hopfully before we leave.
Hope you are well. Miss you tons.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
