virtualmom

Israeli Street Food

I could eat this every day...and I have!!!!

The kids and La. took to Shawarma!

Glad they are trying something different, even though you can get falafel and shawarma in NYC as well.

Coming to the States soon...

Fresh squeezed Pomegranate!

Pool Day

The pool at the hotel has a sand bottom...nice

3.23.09

We had a rough day today! Which is OK and expected after our long streak of good days.
It started off OK, we slept in and woke at our leisure. Then we took our time packing up and doing a minor clean of the apartment we rented. Afterwards for lunch we went into the center of Jerusalem one last time to the Jewish Market, Mehane Yeshuda. Once again we made it there without getting lost--which surprised me immensely! The maps of Jerusalem confused me with all of the curvy one way streets with unfamiliar names so to have not gotten lost at all in Jerusalem was great.
The Market was fabulous and I only wish we went there on day one. I would have stocked the apartment full of fresh fruits, halava, salads, pitas, etc. Still I was happy we saw it. Definitely something to experience. I likened it to Pike’s Peak Market in Seattle, but better.
After we had our fill, we hopped in the car to drive to the Dead Sea(on the way and since we loved it so much, we thought we should attempt to go again) and then onto Eilat. We initially headed out of Jerusalem the wrong way and we had to backtrack, which was a bummer. We had finally gotten lost--again expected since we had been doing so well. Additionally the ride took us longer than we expected, not sure why.
Alas, by the time we got to the Dead Sea, it was closed for the day. So we got back in the car and continued south to Eilat.

The sky darkened quickly at that point and the winds started to pick up. Most of the way we were driving in a heavy dust storm with low visibility. It was tough! You could barely see in front of you which made it hard to pass if you got behind a slow moving car. At one point a bus going in the opposite direction came into our lane to pass a car, and almost did not get back into his lane before we would have met in a head on collision. That freaked the hell out of me, I started to think about how quickly help could have made it out to us if we needed, and concluded that help would have taken a long time. We were in the desert, the middle of nowhere! ***I decided then and there that we should change our plans and return the rental car in Eilat instead of driving up to the airport in a few days. No more driving on this trip!
When we finally got into town(8pm) we went to the wrong hotel. The Isrotel chain has 9 hotels in Eilat, all with similar names. We had to stop at the Sheraton to find the Isrotel Riveria Garden and then when we got there, we spoke with a really unhelpful and mean employee who did not help us at all. Finally after paying for internet service we found out that I booked the Royal Garden, not Riveria Garden. My bad! At that point we were all tired and hungry and irritable. It wasn't helpful to find out that all of the hotel restaurants were closed!
I guess it was just one of those days! I hope tomorrow we can relax and mellow out!

Bar Mitzvah Q&A:

For the Mom of the BM Boy:
Q:Did you get a new dress for the BM? If so, which designer made it?
A: No, no new dress, just a dress from the petite section of Loft.(Petite clothes fit me much better than regular size since I am height challenged). None of us, including L., got new clothes or new anything for the ceremony.
Q: Did you get matching shoes and handbag?
A: No. I wore my old yet comfy Aerosole sandals that I have had for years. I used my backpack to carry what I needed.
Q: Manicure?
A: Actually, yes! At JFK Airport we had several hours before our flight, so S. and I got a 10 minute manicure.
Q:Pedicure?
A: No, as a matter of fact, I couldn't find polish remover, so my toenails looked awful!
Q: What type of invitations did you purchase?
A: None
Q: Did the make up artist do your faces for the picture taking session before the BM?
A: We did not wear any makeup or hire a make up artist and/ or photographer. We luckily had Aunt Susie and our new friend Ben taking photos for us.
Q: What else?
A: I didn't feel that what I wore or how I looked, or even how much money I spent on all of these things mattered in making L.'s Bar Mitzvah more meaningful.
Coming to Israel was the perfect way for our family to celebrate L.'s BM. We truly did it OUR WAY!. and when you take ownership to your actions, it translates in authenticity.

BTW: I could go on and on with the mock interview and questions, but I think I made my point. We hit our personal bullseye on this one!

Magical Trip

This trip has been magical in so many ways, I am not the religious type yet somehow I can't help but feel as if we were being watched over or taken care of here. For the most part, everything has turned out better than I could have imagined. And I never give such compliments. I usually temper my enjoyment with a little criticism of what we could have done better. But in this case, I don't think we could have done better!!!
I can't exactly express what I am feeling, but I think all of us have fallen in love with Israel. I know for sure the kids will be coming back, and I hope to as well someday. I had a vision of one or both of them spending a semester of school here with me joining them for the duration of their stay. If we were to do this, I could enroll in some immersion hebrew classes and pick up the language quickly. Even during this trip, hebrew started coming back to me.
Today we are off to Part Three of our trip: Eilat. Eilat is at the southern tip of Israel and is the country's beach resort area. We will leave our rented apartment in Jerusalem this afternoon for the luxury of staying in a hotel. This part of our trip we will be able to relax and not use our brains as much. We will not have to think about where to eat, what to buy at the grocery store, where to park the rented car, doing dishes, getting directions, and the list goes on. I like all of the above chores while on vacation, it is a different way of travelling, but I also like the luxury of hotels. On this trip we get the right amount of each style!

Mediterranean Sunset

PERFECT!
Just what I wanted to see in Tel Aviv...
Thank you.

Dead Sea

Morning in Jerusalem

It is morning here in Jerusalem, even though my computer is still showing NYC time(after midnight). Our trip over was extremely smooth, we even met a Manhattan Kickers(youth soccer league that L. and S. have played in for years) dad and his 2 kids on the train. Imagine, we travel 11 hours on a plane and the first people we meet after leaving the airport are from Manhattan. Plus, the 11 yr. old boy and S. share the same soccer coach, Erwan.
Chance encounters are not new to me. I remember one cross country driving trip in which I bumped into someone I knew at every state we stopped in, the wildest was when we were driving through Nebraska and I looked over at the car in the next lane on the interstate highway and sure enough I knew them.
But back to Israel: I'm tired and feel like I could sleep another several hours. I am forcing myself to stay up, I need to wake the others soon.
We are staying in an apartment that we rented from a man from Pittsburgh. He bought this apartment so that he had a place to stay while in Israel. Years ago his daughter went to college here and she ended up meeting and marrying an Israeli man and has never left. His daughter and family live in this apartment complex(upstairs) and we met them last night. They were very generous and informative--answering many of our questions.
This apartment is nice. It feels very American, though there are a few giveaways: the toilets are different as is the hot water system. Nothing bad, actually both differences are more eco-friendly than what we are used to in the states. The toilets let you choose how much water to flush with--meaning you don't need as much water to flush liquids as with solids. Also the water for the shower is heated by solar power and is limited. But if you need more, you can turn on your hot water boiler. Both instances I am referring to just limit your water usage-- a good thing.
Last night we went to the corner deli and stocked up on some basics. The deli was nothing special and the produce there was not good. I am suspending judgement on the food here yet because I cannot base an opinion on just this one little deli. I hope to find a bigger grocery store today. I remember being totally WOW'ed by the corner delis in Paris, but um, that was Paris! I have to lower my expectations.