So here I am, almost at the close of my last day in Israel. Sad! I spent the day pretending it was one like any other, enjoyed myself as such, took as little time cramming shit into my suitcase as possible, and soaked up as many last-minute rays that I could. I'm now welcoming the evening and my favorite cafe, enjoying a lemonana and sort of wishing the sun would set, i wouldn't go to bed, and tomorrow didn't have to come.
Alas! I know I will be happy to be home. Looking forward to having some productivity in my daily routine(sort of...) and seeing you all, and not having to pay an arm and a let for a pop. (Yeah, i say pop now....i think I've officially been poisened by daddy's weird version of the english language) Can't say I'm looking forward to having to waking up before 10 or doing my laundry or planning what August brings, but vacation can't last forever, right? However, if you do figure out a way that it can, please let me know.
Life here has become more than just vacation, which is nice...I love having time to settle into the city, and have people recognize me, and know what I order, or where I'm going. It is so interesting how quickly common acquaintances occur: with the hotel staff, with the shop keepers, with the servers, with the guards. It is just nice to know that everyone is so friendly and open to new people; it is what i think i enjoy about most about any place, and what I miss the most when I leave.
I'm wondering if perhaps I should just move straight to a tropical island somewhere and forget this whole "future" thing that i meant to be happening. i like the sun, I like the water, I like the easy life.
There are a lot of things I feel like I've probably forgotten to buy, or to see or to do, but like i said last year, it just leaves things for next time. Although this time I believe there always is a next time, since this second trip really did happen. I guess things just work out that way! If anyone decides to take a trip to Israel, sign me up, I'll come back here any time.
Alright, my lemonana is all done and I should be closing up shop and picking up daddy at work soon. This is me signing of from Tel Aviv, and soon enough i will be home...see you then!
July 8, 2008
July 7, 2008
Time Flies
So here I am, two days before my departure. BOO! Haven't been in contact with the telecommunicating world in the past few days, so everyone seems to think I am dead, but not true! I have just been relaxing...Daddy took a 3-day weekend like he was supposed to (shocker!). Friday we went to the crafts market on Nechalat Binyamin, and bought some stuffs, but mostly walked around sweating. Heard a fantastic string quartet of olderly israeli men in the market, a nice sort of surprise. They were very good. We went and roasted at the pool and then went down to sheinken street and had drinks.
Daddy is now in love with the israeli version of "ice coffee." It is this wonderful little slushee thing that you get out of one of those slushee-twirly machines, and it is ice coffee, a smoothie, and a milkshake all in one. Divine! We went to our coffee shop the past three days straight, and I am being told (in not so many words) to learn how to make them at home. Sister: teach him how to make smoothies, he is obsessed.
Saturday, while the world was quiet in the shadow of shabbat, Daddy and I trekked out to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. This is one of the best museums I have ever been to. It needs some new curators for the permanent collection, but hey, no one is perfect. They have about 15 picassos all in a row...it is overwhelming. AND there is a huge Lichtenstein mural on the way, painted right on for the museum. Whoa. It is HUGE. I mean, who would think, in a country the size of israel, a "war-torn" country, they have a collectino to compete with those of the major capitals in the world?Plus, they have amazing Jewish and Israeli artists that you've never heard of, but should be sorry you haven't. It is so much in such a small space, and all so wonderful, it is amazing and awesome(to be interpreted with the most literal of definitions).
Yesterday we tried to go see some wineries, but alas, they were all either closed (vacation, now? how goes on vacation in July?!), or apparently non-existent(don't ask). So instead we got a nice little sight-seeing trip around the Israeli country-side...saw some huge cities, and some smaller towns, and got to know Habib, the uncle (sort of?) of one of daddy's colleagues, and our taxi driver. He was a very sweet older man who turned to taxi driving three years ago, after having run his own garage for decades. He was an expert on Citroen and Peugot, and knew Hydrolics like the back of his hand. We spoke a lot in French because he was fluent, as opposed to his english, which I thought was very good, but he felt very uncomfortable with.Learned all about his five kids, and the their lives. Hightlight of the trip: we drove past (a couple times) a huge garbage dump that had gotten too big and smelly, and so had been covered with dirt. Story is that they are going to sod over the large hill-like mounds, which the government will then turn into some sort of tourist site or monument. Ha. Ha. Ha. Too funny. Talk about one man's trash as another man's treasure!
So now I've caught you up, minus all the sunning and shopping, but I'm sure you will see proof soon enough, since I return late wednesday night. Not sure I want to get on that plane....
Anyway, besides
Daddy is now in love with the israeli version of "ice coffee." It is this wonderful little slushee thing that you get out of one of those slushee-twirly machines, and it is ice coffee, a smoothie, and a milkshake all in one. Divine! We went to our coffee shop the past three days straight, and I am being told (in not so many words) to learn how to make them at home. Sister: teach him how to make smoothies, he is obsessed.
Saturday, while the world was quiet in the shadow of shabbat, Daddy and I trekked out to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. This is one of the best museums I have ever been to. It needs some new curators for the permanent collection, but hey, no one is perfect. They have about 15 picassos all in a row...it is overwhelming. AND there is a huge Lichtenstein mural on the way, painted right on for the museum. Whoa. It is HUGE. I mean, who would think, in a country the size of israel, a "war-torn" country, they have a collectino to compete with those of the major capitals in the world?Plus, they have amazing Jewish and Israeli artists that you've never heard of, but should be sorry you haven't. It is so much in such a small space, and all so wonderful, it is amazing and awesome(to be interpreted with the most literal of definitions).
Yesterday we tried to go see some wineries, but alas, they were all either closed (vacation, now? how goes on vacation in July?!), or apparently non-existent(don't ask). So instead we got a nice little sight-seeing trip around the Israeli country-side...saw some huge cities, and some smaller towns, and got to know Habib, the uncle (sort of?) of one of daddy's colleagues, and our taxi driver. He was a very sweet older man who turned to taxi driving three years ago, after having run his own garage for decades. He was an expert on Citroen and Peugot, and knew Hydrolics like the back of his hand. We spoke a lot in French because he was fluent, as opposed to his english, which I thought was very good, but he felt very uncomfortable with.Learned all about his five kids, and the their lives. Hightlight of the trip: we drove past (a couple times) a huge garbage dump that had gotten too big and smelly, and so had been covered with dirt. Story is that they are going to sod over the large hill-like mounds, which the government will then turn into some sort of tourist site or monument. Ha. Ha. Ha. Too funny. Talk about one man's trash as another man's treasure!
So now I've caught you up, minus all the sunning and shopping, but I'm sure you will see proof soon enough, since I return late wednesday night. Not sure I want to get on that plane....
Anyway, besides
July 3, 2008
You think you're old?
It is amazing how easy it is to forget how old the world is. America is all so new...at least the US, it is just so...inside the box. All the buildings go straight up, and if they are old, it is merely paint peeling, or siding rusting. Here, you walk past buildings and the windows are merely holes carved out, and then lined with curtains. Old mud-brick buildings are crumbling, and some are merely carcases of what they once were.
Even more fascinating to me is how easy it is to step from one world into another. There is a street here that separates to parts of Tel Aviv: one side is Neve Tsedek, and the other side is Rothschild Blvd. It is as if I am stepping from the past into the future, every time I cross that path. One side is all pink and beige sand stone, and roofs of red stone. The other side is high-rise apartments, and Israel's version of Starbucks "EspressoCafe." I guess it is just as easy to find such disparate spaces back at home...I mean, walking down Wilson Blvd is like jumping from 1960 to 2000 in about 2 blocks, but it is so different when even the paving of the streets changes character.
It is just very reassuring to hear and see and feel the way an old world can remain so wholly intact. Even the efforts to update these old buildings maintain a balance of the old with the new, ignoring any expectation to build some up-to-date model of a home. As you walk around tel aviv, you can see the foot print of the past as it has been laid over the years, and beyond that even, the culture holds on to the old world. Despite the fact that Israel itself became a country a mere 60 years ago, the ground on which that country has been built is still ripe with history in all its forms.
Even more fascinating to me is how easy it is to step from one world into another. There is a street here that separates to parts of Tel Aviv: one side is Neve Tsedek, and the other side is Rothschild Blvd. It is as if I am stepping from the past into the future, every time I cross that path. One side is all pink and beige sand stone, and roofs of red stone. The other side is high-rise apartments, and Israel's version of Starbucks "EspressoCafe." I guess it is just as easy to find such disparate spaces back at home...I mean, walking down Wilson Blvd is like jumping from 1960 to 2000 in about 2 blocks, but it is so different when even the paving of the streets changes character.
It is just very reassuring to hear and see and feel the way an old world can remain so wholly intact. Even the efforts to update these old buildings maintain a balance of the old with the new, ignoring any expectation to build some up-to-date model of a home. As you walk around tel aviv, you can see the foot print of the past as it has been laid over the years, and beyond that even, the culture holds on to the old world. Despite the fact that Israel itself became a country a mere 60 years ago, the ground on which that country has been built is still ripe with history in all its forms.
July 2, 2008
I've lost track of the days!
It is a great feeling. I don't care (or have to care) what day or what time it is. Total freedom, it is amazing. So how have I been spending my days? Well, nothing too extraordinary, just wandering around Tel Aviv and lazing by the pool-- it has been excellent.
This morning I went down to the promenade along the beach and read for a couple hours. Finally finished my book, The Executioner's Song. Pretty heavy reading for the beach, but it was very good. Daddy asked if it was "fun." Not exactly the work I would use, but good,definitely good. Now I have to decide what to read next! And at some point I should get down to studying for my wine exam, but I'll let that sit for a little longer.
Did some more research today on where to go to find wineries. I think Daddy and I are going to get a taxi to schlep us around on Sunday, should be fun. Tonight we are going to dinner at one of him colleague's houses in Jaffa, the old city; The guy's family is out of town right now, so it is us keeping him company as much as it is him inviting us to dinner. Should be nice to see what a real house in Tel Aviv is like. Speaking of which, saw an ad on the street for a sea-view studio apartment. Price was pretty great too....although I think it would probably be a little to much of a commute. Ah well!
The people at the hotel have started to really recognize me which is nice. On of the gentlemen who are on staff during breakfast even attempted, through his thick african accent, to compliment me on my crossword puzzle abilities. The cleaning ladies are still very cold, which I'm told is just because they are russian, and has nothing to do with the mess i leave in the room. Not sure I believe it. All in all, I like knowing the people around me....only takes a few days and its nice to fit in like a regular.
Now i'm off to find a nice gift for our dinner host tonight...and to sit by the pool some more :)
This morning I went down to the promenade along the beach and read for a couple hours. Finally finished my book, The Executioner's Song. Pretty heavy reading for the beach, but it was very good. Daddy asked if it was "fun." Not exactly the work I would use, but good,definitely good. Now I have to decide what to read next! And at some point I should get down to studying for my wine exam, but I'll let that sit for a little longer.
Did some more research today on where to go to find wineries. I think Daddy and I are going to get a taxi to schlep us around on Sunday, should be fun. Tonight we are going to dinner at one of him colleague's houses in Jaffa, the old city; The guy's family is out of town right now, so it is us keeping him company as much as it is him inviting us to dinner. Should be nice to see what a real house in Tel Aviv is like. Speaking of which, saw an ad on the street for a sea-view studio apartment. Price was pretty great too....although I think it would probably be a little to much of a commute. Ah well!
The people at the hotel have started to really recognize me which is nice. On of the gentlemen who are on staff during breakfast even attempted, through his thick african accent, to compliment me on my crossword puzzle abilities. The cleaning ladies are still very cold, which I'm told is just because they are russian, and has nothing to do with the mess i leave in the room. Not sure I believe it. All in all, I like knowing the people around me....only takes a few days and its nice to fit in like a regular.
Now i'm off to find a nice gift for our dinner host tonight...and to sit by the pool some more :)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
