It's been a long time since I've updated this blog, and I started the last two posts lamenting how long it had been. This time I think I'll skip straight to writing a long, mundane account of the last few months in Israel.
Beach season is nearly over. For most Israelis who are accustomed to the warm water, it was over about a month ago, but for a New Yorker who finds the chilly waters at Jones Beach at least pleasant, there's still some fun in the sun left to enjoy. Especially now that the beaches are less crowded and you don't need to navigate between the whips of Matkot balls just to get in the water.
If you're not familiar with matkot, it's exactly like the beach game we called "kadima", consisting only of two paddles and a ball. Except here it's not for lollygagging; matkot players usually whack the ball at high speeds, swinging about 75% of full force. On weekend days at the beach they line up all along the edge of the water, players from neighboring games standing back-to-back, so that the only way to get in the water is wait for a ball to veer off course and the game to pause.
We've also passed the New Year here: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. It's the 5770 now on the Hebrew Calendar. Hard to believe it's been ten years since those swinging 50's.
Rosh Hashanah was nice. I spent it the evening of Rosh Hashanah at Irena's aunt's house. There isn't a countdown or a major event like our New Year's Eve, but you do think about resolutions and plans for the year ahead. I'm planning to stop aiming my laser pointer in people's eyes.
Yom Kippur left a far greater impression. Around 2pm on the day before Yom Kippur--too early to call it eve--the country shuts down. Stores close and the roads and sidewalks clear of traffic. The notion is that everyone should so concentrate on reflecting on the past year that they should not expend any energy or engage in even moderate activity. You do not even play music in your apartment; you do not use your phone anywhere in public. About the most activity you see are kids on their bicycles riding through the streets, the one day a year there is no traffic.
It's the most barren and deserted I've seen an urban scene since a snowstorm in February of 2003, when I was working as a fact checker at the Washington Square News at NYU. It snowed over 10 inches of thick, unnavigable snow on the morning that I had some special responsibility. I was up for fulfulling that responsibility, and was actually eager to see the city in such a blanket. I hadn't expected the streets to be so barren, though, that I could walk down the center of Broadway on my way to the office.
Need a funny way to finish this post. Ah, yes, a story from when I applied to work at the Washington Square News. Newcomers were eligible to be copy editors or fact checkers. Beyond the interview with the Editor-in-Chief, there was a 10-question test of politics and current events. This was around the time that North Korea was emerging as a nuclear threat, and hence also when the mainstream was introduced to the eccentricities of the North Korean leader. Apparently the introduction didn't leave a strong impression on me. One of the questions on that test: Who is the leader of North Korea? My answer: Kim Pyonyang.
Almost everyone who reads this blog knows that I was in New York for about a week and a half. I was pleasantly surprised that a few of you asked me why I hadn't updated my blog in so long. I've noticed that people have still been checking into the blog despite my inactivity. I've even picked up a reader from Ghana. Hopefully I can work it back into the routine.
It was great to be back home. While it was a busy but productive trip for work, I also managed to squeeze in at least two visits with many of friends and family I hoped to see. I wasn't able to connect with a few of you, but I'll be back in December. My flight is on December 16. I don't have a return flight yet but I'm hoping to stay until around New Year's Day.
A lot of people asked me these two questions: what do I like most about living in Israel, and what do I miss the most about New York or the States. Let's start with what I miss from New York.
What I miss most about New York: Rachel McAdams. She happens to look great in person (I saw her walking out of the Today Show one day before work, as our client's offices are at Rockefeller Plaza), but of course the real point here isn't that you see a lot of celebrities in New York. Rather, it's that extraordinary things are always within reach. You can see a celebrity walking by on the street, [IRENA DON'T READ THIS NEXT PART] find yourself chatting up a a semi-famous model about funny experiences in the dentist's chair, see your favorite band on tour once a year, or get the opportunity to organize and participate in a panel discussion with an author you greatly admire. And in discussing how so many things are "within reach", I haven't even touched on how convenient New York is. You can get great cuisine from about 10 different parts of the world within a few blocks of your apartment, and if you need something, anything - a hammer, a block of cheese, a cup of coffee - it's always around the corner.
Having everything you want "within reach" is a quality somewhat unique to New York, and while I think that this is a little more true of the States than Israel, it's also possible that my lesser familiarity with Tel Aviv/Israel and lack of Hebrew makes me think that things in Israel are less accessible than they really are. After all, I just missed seeing Bar Rafaeli at one of my favorite clubs in Tel Aviv (she was there the night before).
What I do love about Israel is the lifestyle: it's relatively affordable (very much so compared to New York), the people are uncommonly beautiful, the food is great, the beach is never too far away, and everything is very casual. I can't emphasize the casualness enough, as I've always tended toward casualness of attire and demeanor (in spite of my neuroses that become very apparent once you get to know me, quite a few people have mistaken me for being a "laid-back" Californian). While in Tel Aviv I can wear a t-shirt and sandals almost everywhere I go. It's rare that I wear a button-down shirt or shoes other than sandals or sneakers, and it's even rarer that I put my napkin on my lap. While eating dinner in a restaurant, it's not necessary to ask the person across the table if they "would mind" if you try a bite. You can reach across and grab. And if it's something eaten with pita, you can swipe your pita across their plate. I love that.
There's another big difference between life in the States and Israel, with the advantage going to Israel. Within only a few minutes of arriving in New York, while making my way through the airport, I was reminded of how oversized and grandiose everything is in the States. The buildings, the people (they are literally greater in size), and the advertisements - each one is seemingly bigger than the last. I know this is a terribly cliche observation, the kind you'd expect a recent immigrant to New York to relay back to his family back home, but it was impossible for me to ignore. Don't get me wrong - some of this grandiosity is precisely aligned with the things I want to achieve in life (which is to say that some of my goals are actually oversized and grandiose themselves) - but I do appreciate the current respite.
What's the conclusion? Nothing really. Maybe only that I'm even more keen to live out in California for a while, to combine some of the qualities from Israel (beach, sun, fresh produce) with the things I miss from the States. Or that when I'm back in New York, whenever that is, I'll bring with me some additional quality of life.
No, I haven't given up on this blog. I will probably be updating it less often than I used to, as my everyday life in a new country now brings less and less of the unexpected. But I will also try to learn how to write shorter posts (brevity has never forte), which will allow me to update every few days.
What's been going on? Long weekend this weekend due to the Shavuot holiday. Shavuot is the celebration of the grain harvest, in contrast to better well-known (at least in Temple Shaaray Tefila circles) to Sukkot, which celebrates the fruit harvest. In spite of Shavuot celebrating the grain, the holiday food (did you expect me to focus on anything else?) is oriented around white cheeses, such as this cheesecake topped with white chocolate. Those pictures and more are from our work's outing to celebrate the holiday. We had a picnic by a river with live music, which was really nice and a lot of fun. The set includes a few recent pictures of me.
Wednesday night, also known as White Night (you'll see that many of us at teh Shavuot picnic were wearing white to recognize of the tradition) when the holiday started, there were parties all over Tel Aviv. Irena and I were out on Rothschild Boulevard, one of the more happening streets in Tel Aviv even on more normal nights, until 2am. The parties on the beach, hosted by the city, go until 4am, which goes to show how late people go out here. The celebrations across the city were augmented by the fact that this is Tel Aviv's 100-year anniversary, as you saw with the large "100" in lights in the photo of Rothschild. Much of the White Night parties were inspired by the anniversary - along Rothschild Boulevard there were many playful, recreated scenes of life in Tel Aviv through the years.
We were invited to a Shavuoth party at a kibbutz on Thursday night, which I would have loved to go to, but I had other plans that night (Do you see how well I'm advancing here in Israel? I already have "other plans"). Tamar, a friend of mine from Joost, was in Tel Aviv for the night and during the day Friday, where she is visiting with her family. I don't have the pictures uploaded yet but I'll be sure to post them. We had a great time going out on Rothschild Thursday night, followed by a Friday stroll along the beach's promenade in Tel Aviv. After dipping our feet in the water on a beach near my apartment, Tamar wondered aloud, "Why don't we all live here?", to which her brother, nodding toward Irena and I, responded, "They do". Of course Tamar was being tongue-in-cheek, but life is good here and if you're under 27 and haven't gone on Birthright yet, there's a free ticket waiting for you.
Last night Irena and I made Shabbat dinner for the Novosolok's in my apartment. They had been such gracious and generous hosts to me during the month that I lived there that I was very eager to return the favor, if only for a night. Irena and I made Bloody Mary's (new to the Novosolok's), my famed salad (diced tomato, cucumber, onion and Israeli pickle with dill, parsley, hummus, tart mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon), along with garlic bread and pasta with two sauces: Irena's shrimp scampi and my red sauce with meatballs. Irena's came out much better, and Dan Tino would be having fits if he saw how I butchered the recipe he gave to me. The meatballs were lukewarm by the time I served them, as this was the first time I've cooked a full meal for five. You'll notice that there aren't any pictures, which goes to show that I was too busy and exhausted to take my camera out. Cooking for five is tiring and requires a lot of coordination! In preparing the pasta sauces, we left the garlic bread in the oven for too long and forgot to serve the endive and Roquefort. Perhaps some further practice would help, but it did grow my appreciation for everyone (you know who you are) whose family dinners I have enjoyed for years and years.
Older >>
