BLOG

Women, Druze Village

The woman in the second photo is making Druze bread, a tasty alternative to pita.

Men, Druze Village

I find Middle Eastern men very attractive, even those who display too much machismo.

Objects, Druze Village

The main stretch of Druze Village is crowded and colorful.

First Khamsin

I am experiencing khamsin for the first time. The easterly wind blows in so much dust from the desert that we cannot see the sky, or the sea, or even the foot of the mountain.

In a photograph it may look like fog, but in person, the blowing dust can make your eyes sting, your head ache, and from what I hear, your whole body tired.

Eating and Eavesdropping in the Hadar

On Friday afternoon we went to the Hadar, a neighborhood of Haifa, to eat falafel and buy a cutting board before the shops closed.

Butterfly Sculpture

I like butterflies when they’re made of metal and immobile.

I Could Have Died

Yesterday was my first visit to an Israeli printer, and things were going GREAT, until the owner offered us drinks -- coffee? tea? water? juice? -- and I said YES, JUICE SOUNDS DELIGHTFUL, but because I didn’t want to burden her I decided to get it myself, so I pointed to the container and asked if I should go ahead and pour myself a glass, and she said YES, OF COURSE, so I did, and then I thought HM, THIS JUICE LOOKS AWFULLY THICK, and so I smelled it and put my finger in it and realized IT WAS DISHWASHING LIQUID.

People, this is what happens WHEN YOU CAN’T READ. Boy am I glad that Hebrew classes start next week.

Trees to Love

Distance

Geographic distance isn’t too difficult, considering the multiple ways we are able to keep in touch -- blogs, IM, MySpace, e-mail (though my e-mail use is shrinking significantly), and telephone (on rare occasions).

Yet, there is one thing that makes me feel so despairingly, so helplessly, so frustratingly far away --

You’re going through a rough time, and I can’t be there for you.

Blue Glow

I love how every door in our apartment has a frosted glass window.

Zhang Yimou Breaks My Heart Again

Does Zhang Yimou ever do wrong? His movies are just too heart-achingly beautiful. So much that, sometimes, I just can’t take it.

We just watched Wode Fuqin Muqin. I think it may be one of cinema’s greatest love stories.

No Wonder Foreigners are Scared

The United States seems like a really frightening place on CNN.com.

Answer to Guessing Game

ANSWER: Eden.

I didn’t really expect anyone to guess this -- I posed the question as more of an experiment. I wanted to know if other English-speaking persons with no knowledge of Hebrew would do what I do every time I walk down a grocery store aisle:

Try to associate the unrecognizable letters of the Hebrew alphabet with recognizable letters in the English alphabet. And to do it from left to right.

When I see Eden water, my brain reads “Rain.” Some of your brains did the same thing. Amazing, right?

Now, for those of you who had other, more creative guesses (eh-hem), I have calculated your results as well. Let me take a look at my notes. Ah, yes. It seems you have a touch of spondulix in the east ventricle and stripped gears in your flywheels. Naturally, for that I recommend drinking plenty of water.

A Guessing Game

This looks like any old bottle of water, right? Except that it’s an Israeli brand whose name is written in Hebrew. Right? Well, I want you to make YOUR BEST GUESS as to what is the English translation of this word is. Go ahead, guess!

If you already know the answer (you’ve either been to Israel recently or you happen to be a Hebrew-language expert), don’t give it away... OR ELSE.

Humanity

For many reasons, the Bahá’í World Center is an amazing place.

One such reason is when a young man from Togo was recently having difficulty expressing an idea in English. So three youth -- a boy from Canada, a girl from Mauritius, and a girl from Zimbabwe -- encouraged him to speak French while they worked together to translate. The young man from Togo thus spoke with ease, and he was overcome with emotion and gratitude for those youth.

Examples of unity in diversity are everywhere. There are four people in my department -- one from Argentina, one from Japan, and two of us from the United States. Despite differences in culture or understandings in language, we work well together. We are patient and kind to each other; yet, we never miss an opportunity to laugh at each other. We enjoy each other. Most importantly, our relationships are mutually beneficial.

I know that this experience will have a lasting effect on me. It already has.

White in the Windows

Pining for Our Mazda 3

It seems like 50% of the cars on the road are Mazda 3. It makes me miss ours!

Our Humble Bedroom

This room is so austere it hurts my eyes.

I’m an IM-ing Fool

So, I got my Windows Live™ Messenger, and I dig it.

Most of you are unavailable (i.e. asleep) during the hours I’m connected, so I don’t really have anyone to IM but Sholeh, which is hilarious because we already see each other every day (of course, it doesn’t stop us).

Then, last night I caught Lacey online in Houston. We typed so fast that smoke was rising from my fingertips. And when I woke up this morning, it felt strangely like I was actually in her presence last night, and that we were talking and laughing together, just like old times.

That said, it’s funny that the IM craze is happening so late for me, relatively speaking.

I guess I can’t be a trendsetter in everything.

Contorted Safety Pin, Giant Face

Two examples of Haifa street art.

Rainy Days and Chess Games

The roads in Haifa become shallow rivers every time it rains. If you are fortunate enough to be standing atop Mount Carmel after a downpour, the water keeps moving away from you, so the only real problem is tidal waves created by passing cars. But if you are trapped anywhere near the bottom of the mountain, you can just forget it -- unless you have a canoe, you will be soaked from the knees down.

There have already been three extremely uncomfortable occasions that I spent the entire day sloshing around in my own shoes. Lord help me, I should have brought galoshes to Israel.

Eric and I rarely venture outdoors on those rainy nights. Instead we spend that time at home, watching movies on his laptop or -- and this is new for us -- playing games. Over the weekend he taught me to play chess, and though the first few games lasted only about fifteen minutes and afterwards I swore I “hate this game” and “never want to play again,” I still went and put the chess board on the breakfast table yesterday so we could get an early start.

We continued late last night, and I surprised both of us by playing a decent chess game. “I hate this game” turned into “I could love this game,” and “I never want to play again” turned into “I might like rainy days after all.”

Olives Are Everywhere

GEEZ! You’d think they grow on trees!

Oh, wait...

Nabila’s, A Syrian Restaurant in Haifa

I never would have found this restaurant on my own. From the outside, it looked more like a warehouse. Or a prison. And the signs were in Hebrew, so for all I knew, it said, “Prison visiting hours end at noon.”

But, lucky for me, my lunch at Nabila’s may have been one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten in a restaurant; my 42-shekel meal was better than any 40-dollar meal I ate in Chicago.

The setup was clever, too. Instead of ordering from a menu, we stood at the counter and selected any combination of dishes our hearts desired. We filled our plates, grabbed a drink, and ate like madmen. Like prisoners, even!

People On the Street