Hey All

I've been busy the last two weeks and then sick for the last 4 days so I haven't had the chance or the energy to write in a while. Don't lose hope though, I do have a lot of fun things to share from my weekend up in Haifa....it will all make it onto the blog soon.

Hooray, I'm washing dishes!

Ok so every now and then I have a moment of irritation at the fact that I am washing dishes when I just finished getting my Master's degree, but I guess this is where I am supposed to be right now. I keep reminding myself that this is what I am doing because it allows me to be with the person that I love, not because it is what I will be doing for the rest of my life. I got a job at a Hummus restaurant, actually to be more accurate, Ben got it for me. It's a small place so it's just me and the owner working there. The owner is a very nice guy named Dan who is teaching me Hebrew while he practices his English. The great thing is it's about two shops away from Ben's garage so he can visit me for lunch...or as seems to be more common so far, I can bring him the things he forgot from home:)

Today was my second day and I am beat. I don't know how Ben stands on his feet for so long each day, I don't work nearly as long as he does and I am just aching by the end of it (or really in the middle of it)! Generally I work from 10am until 5pm, but sometimes, when it is slow (like today), a bit less. Here is a list of my duties so far, just so you can picture it:) Wash dishes, cut vegetables, wash dishes, clear tables, wash dishes, toast pitas, wash dishes, squeeze lemons, wash dishes, try to remember to smile, and remember not to crack my knuckles (I'm better at that than I thought I would be)! I think as I get used to things he may teach me how to prepare things (but not his secret hummus recipe!).

There is one part about this job that is actually pretty disturbing, the reason I got the job. The only reason there was an opening for this position was because the Sudanese man who was doing the job before was driving away business. Customers were complaining that they did not like him being near/touching their food! It's really appalling to me, but I think there is an image here in Israel that the Sudanese live a dirty lifestyle (I actually don't know much about it), and therefore do not want them near food. So the guy showed up for work the first morning I was there and hadn't been told yet! So there I am only an hour into the job and he comes in to get fired. Basically I got the job instead of him because I am white....yuck. It felt very weird.

Moving on to better things....my friend Hadas is coming to visit! Well, actually she is visiting her Dad who lives on a kibbutz near Haifa (in the North), but I will get to see her too! I think we are planning to meet this weekend in Tel Aviv, and make our way to the kibbutz where her dad lives. Ben has a meeting in Beer Sheva with the army on Monday so we would probably head down to Beer Sheva Sunday night (this all requires taking two days off work, but I already have the o.k. if our plan works). We don't have the details figured out at all, but no matter what I get to see Hadas...so cool!

No new pictures this time...sorry.

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears...well not really, but close!

This weekend Ben and I went to the Hai-Bar Nature Reserve, which is about a 30-minute bus ride north of Eilat. Ben had been there before, but this was my first time. Because we didn’t go in a car we were not able to do the safari ride through the open spaces where the animals are more free, but we were able to see the predator exhibit. This is more like what you think of as a zoo, except that some of them have been rescued and are being rehabilitated, and others are being protected because they are endangered in the area. We saw some pretty crazy animals, and some that just make you laugh.

My favorite animal was the leopard because of its size. What a huge cat! The male cat strutted its stuff around the enclosed area for us and then made a really low grunting noise like it had a massive hairball! The tail was what really amazed me…it was so long and at the base it would take two hands to go all the way around. The female cat was cute (but that’s probably because she was sound asleep). She was lying against the fence with her legs in the air like Cosby and Maybe do when they sleep.

Now for my least favorite animal, and it's not the snake, that's mom's! If you don’t already know, I have an aversion to birds, it’s better when they are in cages usually, but with these birds the cage did nothing to dispel the fear (and actually this time disgust!). I was looking pleasantly at some furry little animals on one side of the path and then turned around to see what was on the other side…birds, big ones….vultures! Oh my goodness. My only experience with vultures until then was in the Lion King when the three vultures are sitting on a branch hopping around saying, “Whatch you wanna do? I don’t know, whatch you wanna do? Now, don’t start that again!” These were different, they were alive for one thing and seemed at least three times the size of the cartoons. One of them took flight across the enclosed (thank goodness) space and its wingspan seemed almost twice the length of my body! When it landed, it kept is wings outstretched and walked stealthily, lifting each massive foot high into the air with each step. To make things worse it traveled in this manner towards the decaying carcass of a calf and proceeded to drag the body in an attempt to rip off some of the skin. Wow, I didn’t like birds before, but this creature was especially unlikable. I made an attempt at impersonating the vultures’ eerie walk, but I have to say mine just looks goofy, whereas his was downright spooky.

Other Updates

Funny Moment: The other night I went to the little market near our house to get something for Ben because his stomach was hurting. The guy who works there knows us because we go there what seems like at least once a day. I was trying to ask him what to get for a stomach-ache but he wasn’t understanding so I put my hands on my stomach like I had a stomach ache. He gave me a pregnancy test!! It was pretty funny, we had a laugh, and I did end up walking away with some Tums. Aw, language.

Ulpan: Well, we did end up deciding that we couldn’t spend 6 hours of our lives each week with the horrible woman that calls herself a teacher, so we quit the class. However, quitting the class doesn’t mean we quit learning Hebrew. We are going to be working with one of Ben’s coworkers (or another private tutor if that doesn’t work out) because we still really want the help, just in a different environment. We feel pretty good about our decision even though it puts a slight hiccup in our learning, it just wasn’t worth the pits in our stomachs each time we went to class; we’d rather not learn Hebrew through fear and force.

Visa: The visa may take a bit longer to get. Unfortunately this time I have put Irina and Serge to work getting me more paperwork for the visa…it just seems to be endless. However, since I don’t know when I will be eligible for work, and even when I am I’m not sure about finding work, I went to the social services office yesterday to ask about being a volunteer. Here’s an example of how small Eilat is, when I told the woman where Ben works she told me her son works their too…Ben only has 3 coworkers! Anyway though, she was very nice and made it a point to tell me they like to place people for volunteer work where it will benefit the volunteers as well. So she is in the process of finding out if they can insure me (not being Israeli) and if so then she says she can most likely find a place for me working a few times a week in the schools with younger kids learning English. I think it could be good for me to have that experience. I have not heard back from her yet but hope to at some point this week.

Library: Last week I found the library. It’s heaven…there is a whole room of English books! I paid enough to take three books/DVDs out at a time and am so excited to have it available. I even looked for some of the authors I have been reading lately and found quite a few books by those authors that I have yet to read…how exciting!

I think this owl looks like Luna....what do you think? Kind of?

Sinai

Last weekend we went to Sinai. Ben had Thursday off from work so we decided to take the opportunity and just go….it was really rather spur of the moment. We left at about 9:30am and were at a Bedouin camp in Egypt by 11:30 am. It’s amazing how close it really is to us!

We planned to go a Bedouin camp called Sawa, and when we got there it looked pretty nice but it turned out a HUGE group was coming in that night and there wasn’t even room for us. Fortunately the whole seashore is lined with Bedouin camps so we easily found another one. It was called Kum Kum 3 (which means Tea Pot 3). We stayed in a little bamboo hut right on the beach. Actually we didn’t stay in it, we slept outside, surrounded by a mosquito net. It was definitely warm enough. We stayed two nights and both mornings the sun woke me up at 7:05 and by 7:15 I was too hot to stay in bed:)

Here are the highlights/noteworthy experiences of the trip:

1. The whole time we were there we did the only thing you do when you go to Sinai..nothing. I read a book and a half.

2. The water was extremely shallow and even 50 meters out it barely came to your hips. The coral was really shallow as well and wasn’t the prettiest I’ve seen, but there were some pretty crazy fish when you made it out far enough to find some reefs. The bottom of the sea was covered with Sea Cucumbers, which I first I have to admit I thought were turds!

3. Two guys who were staying there caught an octopus and cooked it for dinner.

4. As I said, the only thing you are supposed to do in Sinai is relax, but….at any given moment there are at least 5 flies sitting somewhere on your body and 15 more waiting for their turn

5. The food was…interesting. Some of it was really good, but one night the only option we had was fish. I’m not a big fan of fish, but I usually like it enough. However, at home I am used to filets….here, we had three HUGE fish served to us on a large platter…they were whole, with the heads, and amazingly sharp and ferociously teeth! I could even see the red spots on one of the fish and it made me think that perhaps it was one of the pretty fish I had seen snorkeling earlier in the day. I spent about 15 minutes getting rid of the bones and making a pile of meat and then put the plate under the table to get it out of my sight (the tables are like 10 inches off the ground by the way, so this isn’t really weird). I just can’t stand to see the animal that I am eating, I just like to see food:)

6. I’m glad I went, but I had a lot on my mind (Ulpan in particular), and seemed to forget how to relax. I will want to go back again sometime when I have a better mindset and can really enjoy the nothingness. I think if we go back we will try to find a better beach too….one that is known for snorkeling and swimming.

Ben took a lot of pictures and he has chosen his favorites for me to post on the blog. Some of you have already seen them.

As for an update this past week: My work visa is on hold for the moment because of some silly reasons the government gives us, but my tourist visa was extended when I went to Egypt so it’s ok…I found a community center about 3 blocks from our apartment that has line dancing, salsa dancing, pilates, and rock climbing, I think I’m going to join….more soon.