The Andrea Chronicles

What time of day am I?

2008-02-10T17:26:00.001-05:00

You are breakfasty, like a pile of pancakes on a Sunday morning that have just the right amount of syrup, so every bite is sweet perfection and not a soppy mess. You are a glass of orange juice that's cool, refreshing, and not overly pulpy. You are the time of day that's just right for turning the pages of a newspaper, flipping through channels, or clicking around online to get a sense of how the world changed during the night. You don't want to stumble sleepily through life, so you make a real effort to wake your brain up and get it thinking. You feel inspired to accomplish things (whether it's checking something off your to-do list or changing the world), but there's plenty of time for making things happen later in the day. First, pancakes.

I'm up to 4 cakes!

2008-02-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

This is my birthday week and the current cake count is at 4! Lsst weekend I visited my relatives and they had an adorable little puppy cake for me. My students had a cake for me on my actual birthday. (Which was funny because I thought this class didn't really like me that much!) I went in a grumbly mood because I really didn't want to go into work on my bday and they all sang happy birthday and had a lovely cake for me. (They then tried to get me to watch a movie in class but I lectured anyway!) Then my folks took me out last night and of course there was cake. Then my best firend sent me a king cake. Tonight I am going out with my friends to a jazz club so probably no cake. I wonder if there is a caketini?

Silence is golden....maybe not

2008-02-07T12:05:00.000-05:00

Okay - it has been seriously silent here at the Andrea Chronicles...but that is because I have been having too much fun!

Last week I had some friends in from out of town with thier 1 year old baby whom I havn't seen in ...about a year. Fortunately they have been very good about sending pictures so I did not feel like I was greeting a total stranger - because let me tell you the differnce between 1 month and 1 year is pretty extreme! I certianly did not change as much in one year - although I think we did each gain about the same amount of weight! But she is soooo cute. If you say - "what does a snake do?" She sticks her little pink tongue in and out. So cute!

And then I headed up to visit some relatives for the weekend. Hadn't seen them in a while and I like to visit over Chsirtmas if I can. (And yes this counts as over Christmas since I just sent out my Christmas cards last week and final gifts are going out next week)

And today is my birthday. So happy birthday me.

Things are looking up

2008-01-29T11:34:00.000-05:00

I have been feeling an overwhelming feeling of panic since the semester started. I have been having anxiety dreams and feeling like I just didn't have enough time to do everything I needed to and as soon as I thought of something that needed to be done, I would almost start to cry. I wasn't sure why I felt like this so early on. I thought maybe I was worried about my sister who lives in Pakistan and it was surfacing this way. While I AM overloaded with work, it's just the normal I have so much to do stuff, it's not at the break down in tears regularly level (yet). Financially, things are really tight right now - maybe that was it. And physically, my space is chaotic.

Whatever the reason, I have started to feel better. On thing, my home office is nice and neat now. It had become a storage room with a desk in it. No lie, I had a boob high pile of boxes and crap "to deal with" that stretched about three feet. Well, I got a new desk from my parents (who just sold their second home so anything we wanted -- like my childhood desk -- had to be taken and absorbed into our homes now) and to do that I had to take everything out of the office and pile it around the rest of the apartment. Results, my apartment looks like Monk's brother lives here with piles and piles and piles of paper and crap on every surface and piled under the Christmas tree (which is still up) but my office is pristine. Clear, organized, everything neatly on the shelves. I am determined to keep it this way even if it means I can't cook for a month! (I cleared a space in front of the microwave and coffeepot) And because of this, I spent the last two evenings prepping for my classes, which had never gotten completely organized. I now have my nice notebooks made with all the info I need, my lesson plans made out and my blackboard up and up to speed. I feel so much better. I think the stress was less from a lack of time than from a loss of time. I really couldn't get a grasp on what needed to be done when, it was all floating around in my head so each day was a series of "oh shit"s as I realized I had something I desperately needed to get done right away. Now it's all down nice and neat in my planner and course notebooks and I have a nice big clean desk to do them on. Ahhhhhhhh

My friends are safe

2008-01-28T11:07:00.000-05:00

28%

So it looks like they are safe through faculty forum and long department meetings....oh hell, lets face it...at my size and physical condition...I'm going down. (And who could blame them, I would definitely be the tastiest.)

2008-01-24T01:11:00.000-05:00

I am losing my mind. I have so much to do. I am so behind. It is only the third week of school. I just had a four day weekend. How can this be happening so soon? Aggggggh

"Special" Thoughts

2008-01-19T23:50:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts I have that make me think that I am not like other girls. (note reference to the Buffy musical - special thought number one! "Whistle while you, work, So hard all day, To be like other girls, To fit in IN this glittering world...")

2) "I don't know why I am so tired, it's only midnight."
3) "Do other girls just pull off their bra and jeans and crawl into bed...I think some girls have special clothes they use just for sleeping in."
4) "What is that smell in my...(office, house, refrigerator)?!"
5) "Since the unfortunate fireball incident, I don't like to use the bottom part of the stove."
6) (actual conversation) Me:(so proud) "I actually cooked my own dinner from scratch last night." Friend: "What did you have?" Me: "Mashed potatoes." Friend: "With what?" Me:(long pause) butter.

2008-01-19T13:05:00.000-05:00

When you start the day with a moment of solitude and contemplation, even the most crowded schedule runs more smoothly.

I got this quote for today from the Peace center and I think it's so true. I think that is one of the things that makes a long weekend so refreshing. That there is time to get all the life crap done (laundry, groceries etc..) and a little left over. Which means I can afford a more leasurly approach to my time and have time for solitude and quiet in the morning. I like to have my coffee and put on some new age music and read my blogs and slowly come into the world. (What would be even more effective would be if I would use that time of quiet and solitude for yoga and/or meditaiton but I am not there yet!) Part of the pleasure of this is also, I am sure, that I am not in a panic about what is going to happen after the coffee and blog time. i have plenty of time today becuse I have no commitments other than a possible coffee date later if we feel like it when the time comes. I have things I want to get done before bedtime but they are my agenda items and i can do them (or not)when I want.

So I am enjoying my morning and I am going to try and make my weekday morning like this as much as possible.

How do you people do it?

2008-01-18T14:36:00.000-05:00

How do you write blog entries every day? Now that the semester has started, I am lucky if i can find the time and energy for once a week!

Me wants

2008-01-15T16:49:00.000-05:00

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/#ad

OMG!! Me wants, me wants.

theme update

2008-01-13T15:58:00.000-05:00

So my theme for 2008 is health and so far...well so far last week highlighted the obstacles in the way to healthy choices rather than actual healthy choices. But I am actually okay with that. In fact, this is one of the reasons I prefer themes to resolutions. Resolutions have a pass/fail quality and if I had made a resolution to be healthier at this point it would feel like I had failed and by next week I would probably be giving up. But since it's a theme, this is just the first step to a journey that is not over until 2009. Plenty of time to change and grow.

So what has happened? Well I have a lot of health issues I have to deal with right now. 2007 could be labeled the year I got the check...meaning I have been abusing my body for most of my life and I just got the bill. I had a lot of health problems and had to have surgery. All of the health problems could be controlled and changed now with healthy lifestyle choices. But, the writing is on the wall and if I don't change my ways they will end up being permanent problems.

So one of the first things I need to work on is eating. Now I am very overweight and need to drop some tonage but that is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, I think that is more of a symptom of the problem than the problem itself. I also found out that I am insulin resistant and have PCOS. Diabetes to follow if things don't change. So I need to change what I eat - twice as much protein as carbs - and eat some veggies dammit. I'm Irish by heritage and a meat and potatoes girl (and frankly I could skip the meat) so this is hard shift for me. Plus, I tend to not eat often enough. Eating small meals 6 times a day is the healthiest choice for me and is very challenging. And finally, I don't cook. At all. Not even a little bit. If it doesn't have microwave instruction on the box, it doesn't come into the house. In addition to the PCOS etc... I have been having problems with migraines and one of the triggers is processed foods, so prepackeged healthy stuff is out as well. (i.e. no south beach frozen dinners) I tried to work on this at the end of the last semester but learning to cook, learning to shop for food, cooking it, bringing it to school and eating all this strange stuff was too much too handle all at once. (was going for the South beach diet) Over break however, I got much better. Despite several Christmas related slips, overall I ate much better and one of my friends came over several times and we had big cook fests. She showed me how to prepare some good recipes and we cooked up stuff in advance so I could then microwave and eat during the week. All in all, it went well I was doing pretty well on the cooking and eating front... lots of room for improvement but I was pleased with myself. Then school started. And I was back to my old habits. Last week, I ate once a day somewhere between 4-8 pm and I would get Chinese food on the way home. At that point my blood sugar was so low that once I did eat (enough food for a family of 4) I slipped into a post prandial coma on the couch for a couple of hours. Not good.

But rather than be filled with despair, I am looking at this as an opportunity. I was able to identify several problems/triggers and have hopefully come up with a solution. My new motto - the crock pot is your friend! So I went and got a little mini crockpot over the weekend (I already had a full sized one) I can make oatmeal in the minicrock - you put it in the night before and you wake up and it's all ready and yummy. At least that's what Alton Brown on Good Eats says. First thing in the morning, I am all dopey and it's all I can do to make my coffee and read my blogs. The idea of cooking is not only anathema but downright dangerous. (Really, after the unfortunate fireball incident, I take these things more seriously) And by the time I am functional and it's safe to cook, I am already late for class. But if it's there already and good to go, well, even I can scoop out a bowl of oatmeal once I have had some coffee. Then for dinner, I will do a crock pot meal as well. If I know I have something tasty and hot waiting for me the minute I walk in the door, I can hopefully stave off the drive thru urge. And then I can do leftovers and salad for lunch the next day.

We'll see how it goes. Wish me luck!

A picture is worth a thousand words

2008-01-11T01:18:00.000-05:00

It's the last night of the first week back and I am brain dead and physically fried. But I do not want to go too long without posting or I am afeared I may never post again! So I thought I would upload the avatar I created at the website squadratomagico told me about. I wanted to create an inspirational avatar for the upcoming year. Someone who looked like I felt and/or wanted to feel by the end of the year of health. The way I feel when I think of myself in my head rather than what I see when I look in the mirror (wicked things mirrors....is it any wonder they caused bad things to happen in fairy tales?) So when they make the animated version of my life (think Bidget Jones Diary meets The Paper Chase) this will be me!

(Here is my alternate...I wasn't sure which one to go with. Anyone who knows me, feel free to take a vote! Ah hell, even if you don't know me!)

Hi Ho Hi ho It's off to work I go

2008-01-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

nuff said.

Last Day of Freedom

2008-01-06T19:53:00.000-05:00

Today was the last day of freedom before the semester begins. (Also the last day of Christmas) I had had plans to go up and help my Dad take down the last of the Christmas decorations but when I called to say I was on my way, I found out they had already done it. This left me with completely free day. I could have used that to take down my Christmas tree, finish my Christmas cards and mail the last of my Christmas presents. Or I could have used the day to prepare for the new semester, do some laundry, get my new planner that I got for Christmas in order. Did I do any of those worthy things? No I did not. Instead, I put the top down on the Bomber and went for a long drive.

One of the things I do not like about living in South Florida (and sorely miss about living in Georgia) is that it takes so long to get anywhere different. If you want to leave Florida, you have to drive a day and half. Now it's true that everywhere you go is sunshine and beaches but, after a while that does get tedious. So today I decide to drive west. Since the beach is on the east, I never drive west. What would be the point really? But today I drove west and hit a park in the Everglades. The weather was beautiful, I had my ipod plugged into my new car radio. The scenery was different from what I am used to over on the beach side and it felt just a little bit like I was somewhere else. No mountains of course, but maybe Louisiana. (Might have been helped by Aaron Neville on the ipod) I stopped while I was out and got a tasty lunch and talked with my waitress or along time about homeschooling her son. All in all it was a lovely last day.

Now what class do I have tomorrow?

New radio

2008-01-05T21:05:00.000-05:00

It's the last Saturday before the new term starts and I should be getting ready for the new classes I am teaching Monday (What AM I teaching Monday?) But instead I was out buying a new car radio. Last semester my beloved Samantha Jones (white Sebring Convertible) was pronounced terminal by the mechanics. I had to buy a new car in a hurry because I was about to have surgery and then wouldn't be able to get in a car soon. After a frantic weekend of shopping (under 12,000 and a convertible were my requirements) I was able to find a new car. Now I had figured I would probably end up with another Sebring but they had made some changes after my year and I didn't really like the later Sebrings. And then, there on the lot, was another car. A different car. A car at which, if you had described it to me, I would have turned up my nose. But sitting there, with the top down, called to me. An eclectic blue PT Cruiser convertible. With the top down it looks like an old jalopy. I expect Archie and Jughead to climb in or for Frankie Avalon to put his surfboard in the back. I handed over my cash and The Blue Bomber became mine.

So far, despite my lingering sorrow over my beloved Sammy, the Blue Bomber and I have been getting along fine. Our relationship growing deeper and closer with each hair raising drive down I95. But what the Bomber lacks is a good radio. And by good radio I mean one I can play my Ipod on. In Sammy, I had installed an FM transmitter. I plugged it in, flipped a toggle switch under the dashboard (I love toggle switches) and all 9,875 songs were at my fingertips. But The Bomber had no aux input, no way to play my ipod (The LEM). Then to compound the problem, the CD player hasn't been working properly and the CDs kept skipping. I spent the entire Christmas holidays with the one CD that wouldn't skip in the player. I may never listen to Croon and Swoon again. My life has been a musical nightmare.

But for Christmas, my parents gave me an IOU for a new car radio. After two days shopping with my Dad and many trials and tribulations (why don't the Circuit City and Best Buy boys ever just admit they don't know what something means?) I now have a new stereo with Ipod controls BUILT RIGHT IN! I am in heaven.

Christmas is a good thing.

Happy Twelfth Night all.

Did anyone comment on my blog, Did anyone comment on my blog?

2008-01-05T12:40:00.000-05:00

type type type enter password. scroll down. no comments! sigh.

This is the scene at my computer every time I go to check my email. (which is everytime I pass my home office because I have an addiction) I think it's time for the semester to start up again because I am clearly becoming one sad and pathetic puppy!

Thoughts about teaching

2008-01-04T13:16:00.000-05:00

If there are teachings, instructions or corrections to be given, always give them with a lot of love, and no trace of anger.

This was a quote I got during Christmas break from the Peace Village. I saved it because during break the last thing I wanted to think about was teaching. But I knew if break went well and did what it should, when the semester started, I would be refreshed and ready to think about my teaching again. I like to spend a little time at the beginning of the semester and during the summer thinking about teaching as a global concept. My teaching philosophy and ways to put that into my classes. During the middle of the semester it's all I can do to remember I have a teaching philosophy! But if teaching is to be more than just an administrative activity I do for a living, then it's important to me that I remember the fact that I truly believe that it's more than that. That it is in some ways a calling and that for me, because I love learning and love my subject, its a means of sharing something I love with others.

During the semester it is so easy to get caught up in the pile of stuff to do and the aggravation of students for whom learning is not a calling. Who make self destructive academic choices that I do no understand. And then to get angry and frustrated by that. But I think that that is really me projecting my own desires on students and becoming frustrated that they are not what I want them to be. Which is not there purpose. I must remember that they are all individuals who are in school and my class for a variety of different reasons that are not my reasons. I may be able to show some of them what I think is a better reason to be there and a better way to be as student, but probably not if I am angry and frustrated. Few people will change in the face of anger. They instead get defensive. Even if I am right, if the person I am interacting with (be it students of faculty or administrators) is on the defensive, I am unlikely to get through to them. I may have a brief cathartic moment of release at venting my anger and frustration - particularly if it is justified. But I will not likely achieve my real goal. Which with the students, is to show them how learning is fun, how it enriches their lives and that working hard and mastering something brings a deeper pleasure than the obvious pleasure of Friday night on South Beach and that it's worth going for. But if i can stay in a place of love and peace, I think I am much more likely to be successful. Surely, even if I am not successful, I will end the semester less frustrated! :)

Traditional German Breakfast

2008-01-04T00:52:00.000-05:00

Miss Kitty asked in a post about our Christmas morning's traditional German breakfast and since Miss Kitty not only reads my blog and posts comments but has also put me on her list of good blogs to read, I feel I must comply. I mean she is clearly my number one reader. (Possibly my only reader but on that I will not dwell! :)

So our Christmas breakfast when I was young was Eggs Benedict. At some point, Mom figured out that helping Santa til the wee hours and then getting up at 6 am with kids who wanted to see what Santa brought then preparing a big breakfast of Eggs Benedict and then cleaning the house for the deluge of relatives and preparing a big Christmas dinner and then packing up that night to take kids to in laws in another state the next day was clearly too much work. So out went the only thing that could go - the Eggs Benedict. Instead our new tradition became fried egg sandwiches - much easier and we all love them. Then one year my sister got egg cups and egg scissors for Christmas so Mom planned, as a surprise, a traditional German breakfast so she could use her new gifts and it was such a hit it became a new tradition. (or T as we call it in our house. Anything we do more than twice in a row at Christmas becomes a T. Mom complains that all new t's involve more work for her and has been trying to divest the family of T's for years. Now that she is 70 with no son-in--laws to help with all the T's I am afeared that we are going to have to let them go or - gasp - I might have to start doing the work.)

We lived in Germany when I was a kid and my sister (who did not get to do the Germany living as she was still a gleam in fathers eye at the time) is a big...what is the German equivalent of an anglophile? A germophile?...that can't be right. And one of the things we love love love about Germany is the German breakfast. Fruhstuk. When you are staying at a hotel in Germany you come down in the morning to a breakfast of Salomi, cold cuts, cheese, braunschweiger (liverwurst) crusty rolls and this delicious flat dark bread with seeds and nuts. Butter and jam and soft boiled eggs. And if your lucky, Nutella (a chocolate hazelnut spread). Since I do not like most American breakfast foods (cereal is NOT real food) and will often make a sandwich or have a cheeseburger for breakfast - I am in heaven with a German breakfast. That's food you can start a good day on! hmmmm now I'm hungry.

Another German breakfast staple that I think is so clever is a small swing top trash can on the table to put in your refuse - like used better pats and jelly holders and empty sugar packets. It elements the piles of trash on your table that I always think is so unappetizing.

Okay now I'm thinking of all the things I love about Germany. Gluhwhein (a hot spiced wine) wursts and schnitzel. Oh and the mountains, cute towns, Kris Kindle mart. There are other non-food-related German things that I love.

Happy 2008

2008-01-02T00:20:00.000-05:00

Maybe I don't want a Happy New Year, he said. Maybe I want an intense New Year with a lot of growth experiences

& I had to admit I'd never thought of that

I thought this piece by my most favorite artist Brian Andreaas was an appropriate thought for this new year. Happiness is really a fairly shallow concept when you think about it. What I really want for myself is joy and peace and gentleness and exhilaration. And someone else might want something totally different. In fact, a hard lesson for me to learn has been that there are people who don't want to be happy. So I wish for them and you whatever it is you want/need in this upcoming year to lead to your movement toward your highest self.

People are always into resolutions for the new year. I always make the same ones and have yet to achieve any of them! I really like Profgrrrrl's idea of having a theme for the news year. (It seems somehow gentler and more "Eastern" or more probably a western concept of Eastern!) So I have been contemplating that idea since I first read it and I have decided my theme for 2008 is health. I am not going to make specific resolution/goals but rather will try to focus my energy on making choices that lead to greater health. One of the reasons I like the theme of health is that it incorporates so many aspects of life. There is physical health. I have had several health problems this last year and some health scares are still hovering and they are mostly things that could be solved (if I take action now) with lifestyle changes so that is an important issue. But health also includes mental health, and spiritual health. I have not been as involved in my spiritual life as is good for me and a better balance of work and personal life as well as dealing with issues in both of those areas in a more healthy way would definitely benefit me. So there it is ...2008 ...a year of healthy choices, healthy lifestyles.

(Next post is on traditional German breakfast per Miss Kitty's request)

About My Christmas

2007-12-28T12:49:00.000-05:00

It occurs to me that with all the spirit/no spirit posts, I have not actually blogged about my Christmas day yet. It was extremely nice. My sister made it in from Pakistan, which we were keeping our fingers crossed on as it looked like she might have her leave canceled. She has been staying with Mom and Dad so Christmas Eve I loaded up everything I could think of and drove over there (next town 30 minutes away) We followed all our traditions. We had pizza and watched a Christmas movie and then went to our traditional 7 p.m. mass (because we all get tired too early to go to midnight mass) and then drove around looking at Christmas lights and caroling and playing Christmas trivia. During the light looking, we cruised by my house so I could give the cat her meds (insulin and Prozac - gotta love the kitty) and pick up all the gifts that wouldn't fit in my car earlier and the various things necessary for an overnight visit that I had forgotten. 4 bags to spend the night. Sheeesh!

Christmas morning I was awoken by the traditional sound of reindeer bells and we went down and opened all the gifts. There were so many that we had to take a break half way through and have our traditional German breakfast and go back for more. Then, after a short nap, we prepped for Christmas dinner. Mom's table was set with her Christmas Spode china and Christmas Crackers and decorated eggs for everyone she brought back from Salzburg. I have two close friends who are single and they came over and joined us for the afternoon and dinner as did my cousin who lives in town. Around 8 p.m. everyone left and and we finished clearing up and I headed back to my house (because kitty needs her meds) It was a lovely two days and I got to have both friends and family there. I was truly blessed.

The semester that finally died

2007-12-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

I think my earlier supposition about why I wasn't in the Christmas spirit was true. I kept having work to do. Now that I have put a moretorium on work activities (except for responding to a handful of grad students because it would really be cruel to make them sweat it out through vacation) until Jan. 2nd, I am getting much more festive. And since I am a firm beleiver in the traditional 12 days of Christmas (which begins on Dec. 24th and goes until Jan 6th) I still have some time left to enjoy (despite the fact that XM stereo removed the Christmas channels from my tv today....I'll have to break out the ipod and cds now)

Today I am picking up the photos I ordered to make my Christmas cards and I will try to write the first draft of my Christmas letter. Tonight I am going out with a close friend who recently moved away but is back for Chiristmas. Meanwhile, I am playing around on my computer trying to figure out how to do some stuff on itunes so that my sister can steal all of my music before she heads back to Pakistan on Saturday. Not a bad 3rd day of Christmas (or is it 4th?)

2007-12-24T11:35:00.000-05:00

Well this is the last day. Christmas is tomorrow. I have about 3 hours to finish whatever needs to be done before Christmas day. (Due to the bizarre time lag here I only have a few working hours today. I am a night person and my family are all morning people. This results in some time challenges. For example, I have to be at the family domicile at 3:30 for the Christmas Eve activities. But I went to bed at 3 am and just woke up at 11a.m. So not alot of "day" in my day!) I'm not even sure what that is. But since I give myself until the end of Christmas (Epiphany Jan 6th) to get all "not in this location" gifts and cards sent, it shouldn't be to crazed! Happy Holidays to anyone who reads this blog!

Slow posting

2007-12-23T22:49:00.000-05:00

Well, I haven't posted since the last day of class. Apparently, not having to post twice a week to keep up with my students has severely limited my posting! Of course, the fact that it is FINALLY VACA might have added to it. I have more time to post but much less inclination. I did hand in all my grades on time and have been alternating between Christmas parties, Christmas shopping and doing the work tasks that I put off the last couple weeks of class. In fact, I was going to entitle this post "The Semester That Wouldn't Die." I am not going away this Christmas, which is very rare for me, so I have had all this extra time to get ready for Christmas. And yet, I seem to keep having work stuff to do. Usually, the day I hand in grades, I am done working until prep week before classes start. But this semester there seemed to always be one more little thing, meeting, report to be done. I have to say, I think it has sucked alot of the Christmas spirit out. I don't feel bad, I just don't feel like Christmas is the day after tomorrow. My new plan is to not do any work until Jan 2. To give myself an actual break. I have found in the past, if I don't get a break, I don't come back refreshed and I burn out much faster. So now it is Christmas!

Last day

2007-12-10T15:10:00.001-05:00

I thought this image expressed what it feels like to be a prof at this time of year. I of course, am the man fishing and the cats are my students. "Have you graded my paper?" "When will you post the grades?" "Are you in your office?" Now I totally sympathize. It hasn't been THAT long since I was a student and I was a student for a long time so I remember the anxiety as you are waiting to find out how you did on the projects you put so much time and effort into. I also remember the anxiety of please let me pass this course. BUT. Sometimes it does feel like being stalked by hungry cats. The pressure when you just want to chill for a minute and watch your TIVO and the cat is eyeing you with that stare, willing you to get up and fill the food bowl. Or the roawrrrs of the cat who will NOT SHUT UP until you feed it. So you sigh, get up, and do your duty.

But today is the last day. I just have to go to school to get one more paper slid under the door and then class number two will be done and I can submit those grades. And class number three ends tonight and since i am dong portfolio grading in class, that will be graded and done before I leave. So when I leave school tonight I will be done, free, finished for Christmas. (okay what that really means is free to work on my research and finish all those little department projects that got triaged to the bottom of the to do stack but I am not thinking about that now. In fact I am so overwhelmed with grading, that that stuff is looking good now!)

We gotta have a meme

2007-12-10T02:52:00.001-05:00

Okay, we can't cover blogging in our course without doing a meme.

THE RULES:
1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I can't find the blog who tagged me now but if I do I will link to it. It was one of the ones I read regularly that said, "If you haven't done this yet then I tag you."

1. I broke my arm once because I forgot I was in a tree house and walked off the edge.

2. I have had 24 broken bones...and no I do not have soft bones and only two of them took place from the same accident.

3. I have traveled all over the world and lived in two countries other than the U.S.

4. I earned all the Junior Girl Scout badges.

5. I saw a ghost once and remembering it now still freaks me out.

6. I sing in the car when I drive, with the radio turned up really loud so I can't hear my own voice.

7. When I am feeling insecure I sometimes pull out my GRE scores and look at them.

I tag my students...and since all the other blogs I read have already done it I will have to stick with those six.

Early Vacation

2007-12-08T13:04:00.000-05:00

My mind has left for Christmas vacation, even though I keep telling it that vaca doesn't start until next week. I started finals going strong. I had nicely spaced out all my assignment's so I wouldn't get hit with several big ones at once. My first day of finals, I followed my plan and went to Starbucks, and once *bucks had closed moved to IHOP. But I didn't go home until everything was graded and final grades entered into the computer. But the next day...the plan was the same but when I got the Panera bread to read my students final papers. I. Did. Not. Want. To. And there is only so much you can do to make yourself grade. You can make yourself sit down with the papers. You can make yourself hold them. You can even force your eyes over the words. But if your brain is unwilling to process the words, what can you do? So I have been circling the pile of papers since Wednesday. There aren't even that many. circle. circle. I am going to try to do half today and half tomorrow. Otherwise I will be panicking on Monday, trying to get ready for my next class and totally stressing out. IT'S NOT VACATION YET. Do you think my brain heard that?

How do you know it's finals week?

2007-12-05T12:34:00.001-05:00

It's beginning to look a lot like finals........

1. You get in the shower and think, "When was the last time I was in here?"

2. You wake up and the clock says 11 and you don't know if that is a.m. or p.m.

3. You start having nightmares about forgetting to hand in grades for a class. (A variation on the student nightmare of forgetting you were taking a class.)

4. It's becomes evident that no one else knows where their shower is either.

5. Students compliment you on how well you're dressed because you have no clean clothes to wear and are stuck wearing you best things.

6. You forget how to spell and punctuate as well as the words to your favorite songs.

7. You start fantasizing about shopping in a busy crowded shopping mall and it looks GOOD to you.

8. Students you have never seen before show up in your office asking what they can do to improve their grade.

9. The people at Starbucks feel sorry for you because you spend so much time there working.

10. Getting free treats at Starbucks becomes the highlight of your day.

11. You are able to offer a thoughtful and incisive critique of Starbucks holiday drinks even though you misspell your own name.

Final thoughts.

What a professor feels like at finals.

What students think we feel like.

This ones for Miss Kitty at Educated & Poor

2007-12-05T10:21:00.000-05:00

finals

2007-12-04T11:56:00.000-05:00

Things are going pretty well as far as finals are going. I mean I have stuff I have to do but I have enough time to do it all. In fact, I believe I will achieve a goal I have only ever achieved one time before - grading my finals and submitting thier grades the day they take the exam. I can't help but think I have forgotten something important!

I do have a life

2007-12-03T01:49:00.000-05:00

Turns out what I needed was not a life but a good nights sleep! (And thanks for the post about the value of both my life and a good nights sleep!) Friday I went up and helped my Dad decorate for Christmas and then he took me out to dinner. We walked around the neighborhood that night with our after-dinner coffee and looked at the neighbors lights. On the way home, I checked in with my friends who were at Starbucks grading and went over to hang with them. We closed the Starbucks and stayed outside talking for about an hour more. I thought on my way home how that day was answer to my previous post. I am so lucky to have my parents healthy and living close by. and that I have some good friends here and that I am even luckier to work with them so that I see them everyday and that going into work is like hanging out with friends. (Actually- it IS hanging out with friends). Today I went up to do the Victoria Park home tour which I have been wanting to do for years. It was well worth the effort to get up there in time (I had slept in a wee bit late - til 2pm!) I stopped by another friends house on the way back. Now I have my Christmas tree up (although not yet decorated) and I have some grading to do while watching Will & Grace. Life is pretty good.

hmmmm

2007-11-30T04:16:00.000-05:00

Bloggedy blog blog blog. One thing that is becoming apparent as I blog about my life is that...well...I don't have one. Not that I don't do anything. In addition to...you know...work, today I went to a conference on leadership through the arts. It was actually quite a cool conference and I enjoyed it. And I had a table where I was selling my photos and I got quite a few complements. Didn't sell any, but I like a good ego stroking as well as the next person. But the conference was, after all, part of work. And last night I went to a literary magazine launch...in part because they were publishing some of my photos. And I really enjoyed it. But it was actually for work.

Now on a good day, I would say, "Isn't it great that part of my work is doing cool things like going to art conferences and literary launches." But today it just feels like...I don't have a life.

But that may well be due to the fact that the semester is ending and we all are a bit tired out. I do get to sleep late tomorrow (which is an exciting event in my life) and then I am going down to help my Dad decorate for Christmas and out to a tasty supper with him (Mom is out of town) so that should be fun. I'll check in tomorrow and see if a good night's sleep makes a life appear.

Meanwhile, another cute photo for your pleasure.<

2007-11-29T01:04:00.000-05:00

There is no mercy shown from students (I wonder where they get that from) so here I am posting again lickity split.

Had much fun last night. I left work a bit early (4 p.m. - okay - that's way early for me) and met my parents and some friends for Christmas at Los Olas.

We had a tasty dinner (Big City Tavern) and wandered around looking at all the decorated stores, listening to the live music and soaking up the Christmas atmosphere.

I even bought a Christmas present. One down, 47 more to go!

When it got too crowded to have fun, we retired to the Starbucks in Wilton Manors and had tasty beverages and much good conversation.

Bad blogger

2007-11-26T23:42:00.000-05:00

Bless me blogosphere for I have been a bad, bad blogger. It's been one week since my last posting.

You would think with the holiday that I would have MORE time to post but that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, I got distracted by holiday merriment (and some migraines) and next thing I knew a week had flown by and I hadn't posted a thing. I read recently in an article on what makes a good blog that you should post daily. While my students are only required to post twice a week, I think I will attempt daily postings. I am more likely to remember something I am supposed to do every day. Not necessarily more likely to DO it - but at least to remember it. And that's a start!

As my penance, I will post this totally cute picture for your amusement.

Fun Weekend

2007-11-19T00:56:00.000-05:00

Well I am getting my second post of the week in by the skin of my teeth. I have been having a fun weekend and have no time to do any work. A friend of mine has been in town visiting. We have been having much fun hitting various art venues, parks, resteurants and doing some cooking. Let me clarify - he has been cooking - I have been eating!

I have returned

2007-11-14T14:24:00.000-05:00

So I am back to blogging. My students are required to keep a blog and post at least twice a week in my media techno trends class so I guess it's only fair for me to hold myself to the same standard. I don't have much to say at this piont. I am more of a blog reader than a blog writer. But I enjoy reading my bogs every morning over coffee so much that I will endeavor to be as interesting or witty or insightful as those other writers are. Right now I am just writing to an empty universe so that makes it a bit of a challenge. Is this just a journal online or am I writing to someone?

Blog humor

2006-05-05T13:24:00.000-04:00

Okay, if use the word blog in your blog and spell check - the blogger spell check program doesn't recognize it as a word! Technology....sheesh

Comments

2006-05-05T13:22:00.000-04:00

Does anyone know if it is possible to reply to comments on the blog? When people make comments (and so few do which is a bummer) it would be nice to be able to post a reply so they know you're reading their comments and if they ask a question you can answer it. Does anybody know?

Why am I majoring in computer science

2006-05-05T13:17:00.000-04:00

So I followed the teachers instructions to upload my movie and it doesn't work. I burned the movie using idvd and it doesn't work. The whole point of majoring in CIS is so that these things won't happen when I am more knowledgeable about the computer....But if the teacher doesn't know why it doesn't work...What are the chances I ever will? Am I just wasting my time...Cause I could major is something easy like communications! ;)

multiple posts

2006-05-05T13:12:00.000-04:00

Crap- I need nine more postings. I thought I had done many more of than that. Maybe I was thinking of worrying about it rather than actually doing it! What have I learned? That I really hate writing. If I could just talk and blogger recorded what I said I could do this every day but writing it.....this may explain my lack of publications!

lame blogs

2006-04-25T14:47:00.000-04:00

Since I had some free time in class after I uploaded my movie, I thought I would get caught up on reading other people's blogs. I have to say, most of them were totally lame. Several people haven't posted anything and others just a sentence or two. There were a couple where people did real posts. I enjoyed those ... it was interesting to hear other peoples perspectives about what we were doing in class. I even commented on a couple - but not all blogs allowed comments. A couple people uploaded graphics - those were nice.

End of the semester

2006-04-25T13:51:00.000-04:00

What I have learned recently is that you might get older but you don't really change. It's the end of the semester and I am frantically trying to get everything done...just like when I was first an undergrad lo so many moons ago. I did learn today how to find files on my lap top. That is going to be a big help. It's amazing how one little piece of information can make such a big difference in your regular use of the computer.

Word

2006-04-18T13:46:00.000-04:00

In the beginning was Word...Well actually in the beginning was screenwriter which was the word processing software I first learned on the Apple II. Man have times changed! I enjoyed the Word lecture...I learned several important things...The most significant was how to make the table lines reappear as that is something that irks me to no end...And how to make the columns isolated to one section of the paper. Very important tools. I didn't learn why the border always disappears off the bottom of the page...But then I didn't ask.

Movie Creation

2006-04-06T13:49:00.000-04:00

imovie is fun. I particularly like it's possibilities for Christmas and birthday presents. Being an underpaid academic, I am always on the look out for low cost yet extremely cool, personal and appropriate gifts I can give to my family and friends. imovie offers great possibilities for that. And since these will not be posted on the internet, I can use illegal music to make it even more special and appropriate In fact, my movie for this class is a gift for my best friend. I am making a movie of photos from our various roadtrips of the last few years and putting them to a Jimmy Buffett song (because we go to the keys a lot!) Although we have gone to the mountains quite a bit also...Maybe I should be doing it to Country Roads? :)

40 more years slipped away

2006-03-07T13:41:00.000-05:00

Well, the first thing I have learned is how accurate Jimmy Buffett is...as he says in He Went to Paris...time just slips away. Each week I keep meaning to post and I get caught up in different things and just this once, I put it off til the next class and now it's half way through the semseter and I havn't posted! YIKES.
Another thing I have learned, and this just recently, is that class starts at 1:40! Who knew? (Well, apparently everyone else) I thought it started at 1:55 whidh explains why I was late each day. grrrrr
But all kidding aside, I really have learned alot. I have been wanting to learn about podcasting for ages, and in fact include it in my own classes, and just havn't had the time what with all the emails n stuff. And now I know!

New Purpose

2006-01-12T18:13:00.000-05:00

Since I had already created this blog to chronicle my trip to Israel, I thought I would go ahead and use it. Also, it demonstrates my impressive abilities since I had already learned this. I thought it best to demonstrate impressive abilities while I still could. So far in the class, I have learned about alternative blackboard style software. I will be checking to see if I like it better and want to switch. Later. During the summer. When I have more time.

Dead Sea

2005-08-17T13:50:00.000-04:00

My last day in Israel. Deb and I headed out to the Dead Sea. The scenery was amazing, giant rolling cliffs of stone. Its kind of wild driving through the desert to get to the Sea. And then all the dry rock will be punctuated by spots of greenery. The coolest we passed were several Palm tree forests. Evidently they harvest something from the palms but we don’t know what. But it sure looked cool. Deb had a fit when I tried to take a picture of the check point to the West bank. When I had gotten back yesterday and told her my adventures, she said I had pretty much done everything they are advising American tourists not to do! And taking pictures of security sites is another one. Poor Deb, I’m sure she thought I was going to get her fired. Especially with my navigating! They have only recently gotten permission to go to the Dead Sea by the direct route and if we got off the highway at all and got caught she would immediately be fired and deported, so she was on pins and needles worrying that I was going to inadvertently navigate us into Jericho.
(photo: Palm forest)
We passed camels, goats, donkeys; we even passed a herd of Camels! We stopped at Masada but it was to hot to take the cable car to the top so we only did the bottom part and then we went to the Dead Sea. Very cool. Everyone has said you are very buoyant because of the high salt content but I didn’t take it very seriously. I mean I am pretty buoyant as it is. But it is really different. (photo: Shade & Showers at the Dead Sea) You have a real struggle to get your legs under the water. Lots of folks were covering themselves with black mud but we just floated around in the slightly slimy water. The shore and floor are stone, not mud as I had (photo: Me in the Dead Sea per Gloria's request) envisioned, and all in all it was very cool. On the way back, we stopped at the Elvis diner. There is a dinner here that has the world largest Elvis memorabilia collection. How wild I that. So I have as a souvenir, my Elvis placemat all in Hebrew!

Once we made it home, Deb went to bed for a few hours while I finished my packing and at 3 am she took me to the airport. A trip not without its own excitement. Deb didn’t want to get lost so she went to get directions. In order to get to the airport which is Southwest of us, you have to go North on 20. To get back you have to take a totality different road! Deb just kept saying over and over, who ever heard of a place you can go to but can't come back from. (Imagine being told that you could take I-95 south to the Ft. Lauderdale airport but you had to take 595 and I-75 back) After a bit of wandering (okay we were lost again), we managed to make it. Deb dropped me off and I began the arduous process of going through Israeli airport security. You stand in line with all your bags (checked and non checked). For some reason they pulled me aside. I don’t know if it was because I was suspicious as a woman traveling alone or if it was because my flight was leaving soon but they moved me to the front. First they send all your bags through and x-ray machine then they tag the ones that need further inspection. Then you wait in the next line which is the further inspection. (Nothing by the way is labeled.. Nothing!) They wanted to check my laptop so they ran some swabby wand all (photo: The Dead Sea & the Mountains) over it. I was just glad they weren’t opening my suitcases because they were stuffed so full of souvenirs I thought they might turn into projectile draydels if they were unzipped. Then you take all your bags and check in. Only there was no Alitalia counter. So I asked the security guard. He told me to wait and left. Finally he came back and pointed me along a corridor toward another security guard and me to walk toward shim (I felt I was in a border crossing prisoner exchange) I went down and it ended in a little unmarked backroom was the 4 Alitalia check in counters. So I checked my bags and then went through another security checkpoint where they check your passport etc.. Down a long escalator to another security checkpoint where they x-ray your carryon bag (again) and you go through the metal detector. They once again swabbed Baby but this time also my shoes and bags. Evidently I had no GSR or whatever so I was allowed to go the passport checkout line. From there you go through ANOTHER security checkpoint where you get to your gait and they check your passport yet again. At this point I was exhausted (and feeling very safe) I made it on the plane and feel asleep. When I woke up, I had a horrible feeling that I had gotten on the wrong plane and was not going to Milan but some other place (especially since when I woke up it was already past the time for my connecting flight out of Milan and we were flying over some mountains) I checked with the flight attendant and I had in fact boarded the right flight and were delayed on the tarmac but I had (Photo: The desert drive to the Dead Sea) the slept through the announcement. But he said they would probably hold the Miami flight. I made it through more security in Milan and despite the fact that my Miami flight was not listed on any boards, I am now on the plane for the last 8 hours of flight time. Baring some major excitement like a high jacking or plane crash, this should be the end of my Saga, Mom will pick me up at the airport (all of my luggage WILL have arrived) and I will post this last entry when I get home.

I hope you have enjoyed The Andreas Chronicles – Andrea in the Holy Land. Feel free to make a comment so I know someone was reading them!

(photos: Bathers at the Dead Sea and part of the drive from Tel Aviv to J-town - so you know it's not all desert!)

Friday

2005-08-17T13:49:00.000-04:00

I can’t believe I go home tomorrow. It just doesn’t seem possible. We are going to the Dead Sea tomorrow, so today I spent most of the day getting ready to go to the U.S., doing laundry etc… I did spend the morning meeting with Shmulik, the Israeli scholar. Again, great conversation. I got lots of information about Israeli cinema as wells a better direction to go on with my article. I also assured him than everyone has trouble motivating themselves to work on the dissertation, that that way perfectly normal! Much like the student evaluation horror, the dissertation trauma is universal! At the end of the day, our last order in from the brasserie and more Angel.

Palestine

2005-08-17T13:44:00.000-04:00

(photo:Church of the Shepherds)

Thursday
My wake up call did not happen and it is nothing short of a miracle that I managed to get up in time for my 8am pickup for today’s adventure. I admit to second thoughts this morning. Nasser couldn’t make it, so his partner took us and as I was getting into a car with two strange men to head to Palestine and no one I know knew where I was going, I did wonder if this was the smartest move I was making. But the opportunity was too great to pass up. The other passenger was a young Irish guy named Allen. Our guide told us all about the areas were passing and the political history. Traffic was a nightmare due to the demonstrations but after we passed the Israeli checkpoint (more machine guns) traffic disappeared. Because of the current political situation in the West bank, tourism, which was the areas major industry, has been destroyed. Many of the shops are closed and there are half built hotels where the construction just stopped. Apparently a lot of the people living in Bethlehem (primarily Christians) had relatives in other countries and have just left until things get batter. It was almost eerie, the deserted nature of the town. There WERE people there (more than we saw in Be’er Sheva on Shabbas!) but so few compared to the bustling area we had left (the two towns are about 5 minutes apart - think Hollywood and Dania or Provo and Springfield,) and one is crammed full of people and the other deserted.

(photo: Olive trees on the side of the read ready to be transplanted)

We went to the church of the Nativity which is supposedly where Christ was born. Like many churches in Jerusalem it is divided among the Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, the Coptic’s and the Armenians. Because these groups can’t agree on how to use the space (or have Mass) the buildings are divided up and there is no crossover. As a tourist you can visit all the areas but the Catholics for example cannot have mass in the main church because that is the Greek Orthodox area. They have Christmas mass in the Catholic area which is side church. In the church of the Holy Sepulcher (also divided) the groups of Christians were fighting amongst themselves so much about who should have the key, that the Caliph at the time gave it to a Muslim family and it has remained with them to this day! So everyone shares but no one is in control. The church of the Nativity is one of the only original churches to remain from the 300 AD era (and not be destroyer and rebuilt by the Crusaders) because when the Marmalukes came from Persia and took over, they saw the depiction of the three kings dressed like their own Kings (being from the East) so they did not destroy the church. It was very beautiful and moving, and you can tell immediatly which section you are in from the décor used in the church. We also got to see a bit of an Armenian orthodox service. It was very cool and different from the Catholic one. We also went to The Church of the Holy Milk. Our guide explained that the during the time of Christ, the basement areas of the buildings were used to store goods because it was cooler. When Herod ordered the killing of the children in an attempt to kill Jesus, Mary was said to have hidden here with members of her family (until they could flee to Egypt) So close to the Nativity is another building where she was hiding. While there, she is said to have been breast feeding and a drop of milk fell to the floor and turned the rock white. There is a Franciscan church there now, and it is said if infertile couples drink milk with the powder from the rock and prays to Mary, they will be able to conceive. The church has hundreds of letters from people all over the world with photos of their babies, who have been healed this way. The Franciscan priest said it works for Catholics, other Christians, Muslims, Jews – all that matters is your faith. And the letters are from people of all denominations as wells nationalities. I thought that was cool.

We also went to the place were the Shepherds heard the tidings of great joy. I think that was my favorite place in Palestine. There is a beautiful little church with lovely gardens and in the cave there is a smaller grotto and memorial. Apparently the shepherds would herd their sheep into the caves at night and light a fire out front to keep the sheep safe. The roof of the cave is still blackened from the shepherd’s fire. It was peaceful and beautiful and I could easily envision the shepherds seeing the heavenly hosts. The guide also took us to a friends shop (as they always do) for Turkish coffee and the opportunity to purchase goods. I was enjoying my coffee and determined not to buy anything else (I had bought a carved manger scene yesterday and that was all I was going to get) when I look up and see….a carving of Joseph Smith. I nearly fell off my chair. I asked the store owner who it was and he said Joseph Smith, for the Mormons. I told him I was Mormon and he got very excited and showed me his carving of Emma, Joseph and the angel Maroni and some other Mormon figures. Of course it makes sense since there is a BYU Jerusalem and all, but all you hear over and over are about Catholics, Greek Orthodox , Coptic’s and Armenians...After awhile you just don’t expect to see stuff from other denominations. So to look and see (and recognize) Joseph Smith ...while drinking coffee… was a trip! The owner said he thought we weren’t supposed to drink coffee and I told him I was going to hell. He laughed and insisted I have another cup (I think to show he hadn’t meant to chide me for breaking my churches law not to help me get there!). I ended up buying the bust of Joseph because I couldn’t resist, even though it was more than I would normally spend.

As we headed back, our guide said that since we were the first customers of his newly formed tour company (4 of them had just finished incorporating the company the day before) he would take us to the Mt. of Olives for a view of Jerusalem and the Garden of Gethsemane, no charge. So we went there and it was breathtaking. Afterwards, Allen the Irish guy and I were talking and I was telling him about Mom's research into our genealogy in Ireland. He asked about our family and I told him we were Crofts and Loftuses and he flipped. Turned out he was a Loftus from County Mayo (where we are from) and it is a very unusual name in Ireland...so we are probably related if you go back far enough!

By the time I made it back to the hotel, I had been gone on my 1 hour tour for 4 hours! Given that half day tours are usually 150.00 and this was 23.00, I felt I had made out like a bandit! At that point I had to check out and was pretty exhausted so I decided to abandon the rest of my Jerusalem plans until my next trip and head back. This time I took a Sherut taxi. Which is basically a taxi van. I’m glad I did for the adventure of it, but next time it is back to the regular bus for me. The van is crammed totally full so its less comfortable than the bus and a few shekels more! I made it home and this time we ordered Chinese and watched Angel.

Jerusalem

2005-08-17T13:34:00.000-04:00

(photo:View from Mt. of Olives)
Wednesday
Today was my big trip to J- town (Jerusalem) I decided to brave the bus for the hour or so ride to town. I had not been taking any buses. Deb is not allowed to and had been pretty much sticking to the rules that the embassy staff have to follow just to be on the safe side (i.e. no buses or public transport, no nightclubs, avoid heavy crowded areas etc…) But I was starting to get he hang of it here, and while I still prefer the taxis to the regular bus (okay that may have more to do with convenience than safety) I decide to risk the bus. I managed to maneuver through the gigantic bus station that is more like an indoor mall with some buses and made it on the right bus – only 17 shekel (about 4 dollars) Nice big air conditioned bus. Yes, several off duty soldiers with their ubiquitous machine guns were also on board but I am beginnings feel safer when that happens instead of disconcerted. Nice ride and a great view of the area in between the two cities. I arrive in Jerusalem and ate yummy lunch at an Arab restaurant in the (Photo: Garden of Gethsemene) J-town bus station. I didn’t recognize anything so I told the guy to just give me something he thought was good. At first he was a bit discombobulated by this request (imagine going into McDonalds and saying that) but the he got into it and I got a tasty lunch. And then the adventures began.

(photo: Wailing Wall) Deb had made reservations for me the at the EL Dan hotel. The taxi driver said there were two of them. I had no address, just the name of the hotel. I knew mine was near the old city so I said to take me to that one. After hitting on me for awhile (from now on I am just going to say I am married) he asked if I would like a tour of the city later for 100 shekels (about 25 dollars). I mumbled okay – since I wasn’t quite sure what he was saying (his English wasn’t that great) and I figured I could always cancel after I got to my hotel. He keeps talking and after a bit I realize he is taking me to the Mt. of Olives. I said I wanted to go to the hotel and tells me he is giving me the tour I asked for! He said the hotel was in the other direction and we were almost at the Mt. of Olives. At this point I know I am going to get ripped of big time. But in my usual confrontational manner (said sarcastically- I am the biggest wimp around when it comes to this stuff) I was like fine whatever, take me there and then to the hotel. I had learned my lesson after that and every time he asked if I wanted to see something, I just kept saying no thanks just take me to the hotel. All in all, the taxi drive when I finally go to the hotel was about 75 dollars! But I was so happy just to get out of the taxi and into thee hotel I didn’t care and just gave him the money and chalked it up to experience. Then go to check in and they don’t have a reservation for me! So they call the other Dan hotel and they don’t have a reservation for me either! I try calling Deb but just get the answering machine (she has a shindig at the ambassador’s house and won’t be home till late) so I ask if I can book a room now. Turns out I can and I end up staying there. It was a great location, right across the street from the Jaffa gate to the old city and it would have been fine except when Deb finally was able to get back to me, it turns out she had already paid for my room at yet a third Dan hotel! After paying for two different rooms, I could have stayed at really swanky hotel!
At any rate, I didn’t want to waste any time in town because I only had to days and it was already the afternoon of the first day. I called a guide the hotel had recommended and arranged to meet him in an hour. Nasser took me all around the old city…I t was extremely cool. Jerusalem is very different from Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is really like any big city. A bit more European that American, but very modern. Jerusalem, especially the old city but really most of it, is what I had imaged all of Israel to be like before I came. Old low building made out of giant blocks of stone, twisty streets, and even the many of the new building are built in a similar architecture and style to the old ones so the town looks like a biblical town. The old city was amazing. Having seen the Passion, I think Mel Gibson did a great job recreating how it actually looks. Walled cities are very unusual in that when in the streets/corridors/alley ways, you are simultaneously inside and outside. It is an odd feeling. (Photo:Jerusalem) There ware narrow streets that were lined with vendors selling all kinds of things from clothing, carvings food and souvenirs to luggage - looking very much like what I imagine it did 100 years ago or even 2000 years ago. The items may have changed, but that’s about it. The streets are narrow and somewhat crowded and most of the buildings date back to the era of the crusaders with some going always to Jesus time. The streets are cobblestone, sloped and filled with stairs. Nobody who lives there needs to every join a gym! Nasser took me down the Via De La Rosa and we hit many of the Stations of the Cross. It was weird to be standing in the middle of a bustling market and looking at a marker showing that this is where Jesus dropped the cross (the stations are marked by signs and a pattern in the street stones put there by Helena, the mother of Constantine, in 300 AD when whey converted to Christianity. Most of this dates back to that time period, when Helen came and identified the significant Jesus sites and established churches there. Many where torn down later as various groups fought over the city but the crusader usually rebuilt over the original ruins so the sites remain the same places since 300 AD with various layers of churches and styles. These often includes Muslim stuff because, as I learned from my guide, Jesus (and Mary) are extremely important and Holy figures in Islam so many times the Muslim invaders would just convert the sites to a Muslim holy place. In addition to the stations, I visited Mary’s tomb, Jesus tomb, where he was anointed where the last supper was,(photo:posters calling for Sharon's death)the Wailing Wall (the only part of the old temple left after it was destroyed in 70 A.D.) We also walked though all the quarters of the city (the old city is divided into Arab, Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters.) We only walked around the Armenian one because you aren’t allowed inside) (photo:Protesters) We often had to take a circuitous route because there were huge crowds staging a demonstration because of the upcoming disengagement from the Gaza strip. 70,000 people came to the Wailing Wall to protest that day. They were arriving in droves (carrying orange or wearing orange streamers, bracelets etc...Orange being the color of pro-settlers) as we were leaving. It was quite a sight. We finished up around 8pm and I can tell you I was exhausted. I had thought I would go back at night with my camera on my own and do some more shooting but it was all I could do to get to my hotel room bed and collapse. But as he was dropping me off, Nasser said he was taking one other person to Bethlehem tomorrow and would I want to go, it was only 23.00. I didn’t think we were allowed go but Nassar said it you weren’t Israeli you could go, so tomorrow morning Palestine!
(photo:Desert that Jesus went into for 40 days)

Nachalat- Binyamin

2005-08-17T12:55:00.000-04:00

Tuesday
I had heard of another really cool market near Carmel market that is only open Tuesday and Fridays. I was planning on going Friday but I decided I’d better go today, just in case something happens to prevent my Friday excursion – this being my last week here. I took a cab down and it turns out it is right next to Carmel market…Carmel goes one way down a V and Nachalat-Binyamin goes the other way. (At first I thought the taxi driver had been trying to drop me, yet again, at the wrong place!)
I love this market!!! Love it! I spent every cent I had (it took a valiant effort not to spend my cab money home). It was an arts and craft market with an incredible selection of photographs, jewelry, Judicai, and everything in between, almost all hand made, and often the artist was sitting right there working on stuff. And this is not church Christmas bazaar type stuff. These are really cool art pieces from very inexpensive to fairly pricey, in every style you can imagine. Definitely something for everyone. I got two very cool mezuzahs, lots of jewelry and a few gifs for people. After 3 hours in the market my wallet and my feet were exhausted. Home once again to research, order in food and watch Angel with Deb!

Museum Day

2005-08-17T12:53:00.000-04:00

Monday, I decided the time had come to hit a museum. There are several good ones in Tel Aviv and I hadn’t made it to one yet. I really wanted to go to the Museum of the Diaspora on the University of Tel Aviv campus. It is supposed to be very unusual…instead of containing artifacts from the past it recreates the daily living of Jews throughout history. I started out with coffee on the balcony overlooking the Med and then caught a cab and it dropped me off in front of a museum. Now, the cab driver had been a little confused about where I wanted to go. The guide books here are not very useful and never give street addresses but by dint of locating the corresponding number on the tiny map in the guide book and pointing to it, I thought we had been successful. Turns out, he had taken me to the Eratz Israel museum which is apparently a museum of Israel before it was Israel. The guard at this museum said it was only a 15 minute walk to the other one. In Israeli, that translates to about 45 minutes for me. I decided I didn’t want to risk getting lost (or walk in the heat) so I thought I’d just check out the one I was at.

It was very odd. It had an unusual layout. It’s a large piece of property with several “pavilions” on it dealing with different subjects. First off, the ones I was most interested in were closed. Folk tales, anthropology and the parable garden - all closed. The planetarium was in Hebrew so that was out. After passing through the loading zone to get a drink in the cafeteria because the front entrance of it was closed, I was beginning to doubt my decision. The layout of the grounds was actually extremely pretty, but the museum part…hmmm. I started with the pavilion of crafts. This is where the glassblowing, agriculture, basket weaving etc was. A more boring museum exhibit you could not hope to find. Here’s a plow from 1000 years ago. Here’s a plow from 500 years ago, here’s a plow from 400 years ago. Here’s a basket made of reeds. Here’s a basket made of palm leaves. Here’s a basket made from…you get the drift. I figured I’d go through one more exhibit and call it a day. I saw a very cool looking area with interesting architecture and cool lighting but up on closer inspection it turned out to be a restaurant which was closed. Then in the distance, I saw a picture of Einstein, one of my personal heroes, so I decided to brave the scorching heat (I had been sticking places under the shady grape arbors. I passed the coin museum - yuck - about the only thing worse than the coin museum in my mind would be the postal museum. I get to the Einstein sign and it’s for…the postal museum! I decided to go in for a bit even though I have 0 interest in the subject because it might after all be air-conditioned! I go in….and the postal museum was the most interesting place there! The exhibits were done in a much more modern methods, silk screened images, old telephones displayed like modern art pieces, kiosk where you can dial up and watch old newsreel bout the postal service. And the history info was fascinating as well, the history of the postal service in pre-Israel being a history of the shifting national powers trying to gain economic and political control of the region. And it concluded with a special exhibit devoted to the iconic image of Einstein, based on stamps but including all sorts of images. I spent quite a while in there and revised my opinion of the museum. It also had a really great museum store with super nice pieces…most of it out of my price rang abut I did add a little to my draydle collection. After several hours there I headed home to work on my research and recover from the heat. Deb and I have discovered that her favorite restaurant, the Brasserie, delivers so we ordered dinner from the Brasserie (they make a wicked BLT.) and watched Angel.

Jaffa/Yafo

2005-08-13T19:29:00.000-04:00

Okay - it's been a bit since I last posted and I don't remember now why I didn't make it to Carmel market last Friday...but something happend and I'm sure it was fun. We did go to the grocery store up in Hertzaliya to get supplies for Sundays party. We headed out for the Dead Sea on Saturday but the rent-a-car stalled twice so we decided rather than head over to the West Bank in a questionable car (where the car rental people will NOT come get you if there is a problem) we would drive around Old Jaffa for a bit til we felt confident in the car. Jaffa is the oldest part of Tel Aviv...not officially part of the city. It is primarily Arab and I had wanted to go there but hadn't made it yet. The main part of Jaffa (or Yafo...all the places here have three or four possible spellings making it somuch fun to navigate) is best seen by car. Not alot of exciting things to get out and do but different enough from Tel Aviv to make it worth seeing. But then we stumbled across the old city. We just lucked into it..Deb had been to Jaffa before and not been impressed but kept hearing that it was really cool. We thought we must have a very different idea of cool until we accidently found the old city. You pay you money and park and walk through it. They have restored the area like the old walled city was and it is filled with art galleries and resteraunts and that's where the famous flea market it is (but we were there on Shabbot so most things were closed) It was Amazing..one of my favorite places I went. Lots of twisty stone alleys and beautiful flowers and art hanging on the street walls everywhere. All kinds of art from old fashioned to modern, sculpture, paintings, everything. And almost all of the stores were artist galleries. It was just like I imagine a perfect city would be, adorable, old fashioned, with art everywhere. If there had been a soundtrack, I would have thought I was in a fantasy world. The heat also kept us firmly anchored to the real world. We could only wander for about 2 hours and then had to get back in the car. I was feeling kind of whimpy because I really liked it and wanted to spend more time there, didn't even make it to the park or resteraunts and then we found out it was over 100 degrees! I felt less guilty then! We drove more around Jaffa (in the air conditioned car) and then headed back for our afternoon rest and party prep. Sunday was mostly party prep...another grocery store run, hardware store run and preparing everything. We had a sunset party (make your own nachos as my Utah friends will be familiar with) About 15 of Debs friends and coworkers came. I really enjoyed meeting them. They are a cool crowd. And they enjoyed the nachos! So all in all a good weekend.

Week 3

2005-08-05T02:39:00.000-04:00

Well, this has been a great week. I finally was able to meet with an Israeli scholar over here and he was marvelous. He is a grad student so he is still excited about all of this stuff! He is working on Israeli documentary film and several of his professors wrote the articles I am reading. We spent several hours in a café discussing Israeli cinema. He was able to give me lots of background information that explained a lot of what I had been reading. (What Aliya was….The problems between the Ashkenazi and the Mizrahi Jews etc…) eventually segued into politics and finally into complaining about our students. He was saying practically word for word the same things I do, right down to complaining about student evaluations! And we both said that it was good to know that it wasn’t just us. So the problem with students who don’t want to learn is international...I don’t know if that is more comforting or worrying!

I’ve done some more exploring of the city this week, primarily during my attempts to track down the Israeli movies I need. I’ve been to Opera tower, Dizengoff Center and many many may streets in between. I was able to get about 8 of the films so that’s a good start. Also picked up some Israeli techno music, which is apparently big here. Did some shopping, had a yummy lunch, which was called cheese toast but was really a tasty grilled cheese sandwich at a sidewalk cafe (where I had collapsed in heat exhaustion during my last attempt to find the video store…finally found it and had passed by two times! I can only blame the sunstroke.) Had another yummy lunch which was potatoes and mushrooms in a big bowl of cream and cheese. Double yum.

Last night Deb and I went out to dinner with some of her friends from the Embassy. We had a very nice dinner and an even nicer time with her crew. They are very funny, intelligent, really nice people. Laughed all night. I’m really looking forward to Sunday’s party now.

Today’s plan is to go back to Carmel market and Sheinkein. It’s supposed to be super big on Fridays so I wanted to go back and explore on a Friday, and I need to buy supplies for Friday's party. Tomorrow….the Dead Sea!

Ceasarea

2005-08-04T10:15:00.000-04:00

(photo:Ceasarea main building)
Sunday, the first day of the workweek for Israel but still a weekend for Deb and I, we headed up the coast to Caesarea. First we tried to have breakfast at a cool restaurant Deb and her crew have found, but there was absolutely NO parking be found. We drove around for over an hour trying to find a place to park. We debated going back to the hotel and taking a cab to the restaurant but decided to skip breakfast in town and get it in Caesarea. Well Deb's blood sugar was getting so low that it became imperative on the way to stop and get something to eat. We pulled off the highway were there was one of the signs with knife and fork which symbolizes on highways all over the world that food is available at this exit. Instead of being a little shopping center with a McDonalds like the others we had passed, it was the exit for a town. We ended up on the main street in even worse traffic than we had left in Tel Aviv and still no parking! After a frustrated 15 minutes and poor Deb ready to pass out, I said let’s pull into the gas station and get gas and while you do that, I’ll go look for food. A frantic run to a nearby version of a convenience store yielded some nuts and chips and next door was a gyro stand and I made it back to the car as they finished putting in the gas (full serve only in Israel – I'm lovin' it!) After some food, we both began to feel better and could risk talking to each other without it erupting into bloodshed!

We made it the rest of the way to Caesarea without incident. Caesarea is the town that Herod built and named after Cesar. It has been converted into a resort area with Israel’s only golf course, resort hotels and the original excavation site. We first headed down to the aqueducts. This area is known as Caesar’s beach. I had to take a picture of the sign, again, I feel like I am in a Monty Python movie!
(photo:aqueducts) (photo:Cesar Beach sign)

The ancient aqueduct bringing water to Caesarea is here and a beach for swimming and a very mellow, restaurant café complete with couches, tables and barstools. Very Key West! We got drinks and hung out there for a while. If you are going to see anything in this heat you have to do a bit, then rest, do bit more then rest more. Deb got a yummy milkshake – they make great milkshakes here - and I got a lovely lemon mint smoothie. Very refreshing. After we had rested enough, we drove over to the main site of Caesarea. We wouldn’t have enough energy to see the whole thing, so I had to choose between the amphitheater and the main site. I reluctantly decided on the mains site (so hard to choose) We crossed over the ancient mote into the old city. (photo:moat)They have turned it into a park and swimming beach with restaurant, cafes and some art shops among the ancient ruins. They have done a very nice job modernizing it while still maintaining the old feel of it. (photo:cove beach at Ceasarea main building) We shopped and wandered. They sea is so beautiful here it is mesmerizing. We really wished we had brought our swimsuits and were tempted to go in in our clothes!
(photo: Medetaranian crashing on rock outcrop at Cesarea)
Only the thought of the long ride back in sandy, wet clothes stopped us. Deb bought some nice prints, I got a couple of cool dradles made by a local artist and the best find of all, Deb and I each bought an oil lamp from the Byzantine Empire. Israel is one of the only countries left that allows sales of antiquities, through licensed vendors, and they had a museum store there. It is amazing to hold my lamp and realize it was used around 1400 A.D. And they still work! The man there told us how to use them…he said he often has dinner parties by ancient oil lamp. How cool is that! I can’t wait to get mine home and try it out. (and find a place for it that Ama can’t knock it over) After another stop at another café for more cold drinks we finally headed home. I had used all the film I had with me taking pictures and we were pretty dead. We decided to forgo the trip to the grocery store that is mandatory whenever you rent a car and make due with what was in the house. As always I enjoyed the drive. I am beginning to recognize places along the coast. Even driving home is interesting; there is always something to see! (photo: arts and crafts shops at Ceasarea)

(photo: Arched entranceway into Ceasarea)

The Negev

2005-08-03T13:07:00.000-04:00

Saturday dawned bright and early but we didn’t. Deb and I went out for dinner Friday night. Thai food. There are some good Thai restaurants around here and I was feeling pretty sick and wanted soup so Thai it was. Dinner was good and since they asked us to switch tables to accommodate a larger party they gave us a free desert. It was fabulous. They said was tapioca and there was tapioca in it but it was not a pudding. It had coconut milk and fresh fruit and something else we couldn’t identify but Deb and I were hard pressed to not lick the bowl! When Saturday rolled around we were pretty dead. We went out to rent the car and after that really, really, really wanted to spend the day in the apartment watching Angel. Deb was exhausted with bronchitis and work and I was at the peak of the cold. We vegged for a while and then looked at each other and said, "We HAVE to leave the apartment.” We decided we would just take the car and explore to the south and if we still felt bad after an hour or two we would come back. After we made it out into the warm sunshine (in the air-conditioned car) we actually felt okay. Since we were driving, it wasn’t too strenuous and we decided to head to the desert and see what we could see.

It was very interesting. We had originally thought we would head to Eilat, which is the south-est spot in the country, but we never made it all the way. We drove down into the Negev enjoying the scenery. Very stark and grand. We stopped in Be’er Sheva. Because it was Shabbat, the town was dead. And I mean dead. I think we saw about 10 people the whole time. It was like a movie where there had been some sort of nuclear disaster! But it actually worked out well because then Deb didn’t have to worry about the crazy drivers and could enjoy the scenery. There is a big university in the town and lots of apartment complexes and some stores. And I saw the first black people since I arrived. (photo: view from car of desert)
A lot of the Ethiopian Jews settled in Be’er Sheva so it has a larger black population. At this point we were getting pretty hungry. We knew our only chance for dinner would be an Arab restaurant (since their Holy day is Friday) and we happened to see a couple cars turning onto our street up ahead. I said, “ Deb, follow the cars. That is the most people we have seen since we have been here. If there is anything open in this town, they must be coming from it!” And sure enough, we found a little shopping center with a few stores open and yeah! A restaurant. We would have taken what we could get at that point but Allah was smiling on us. The place was called (translated) Heaven on the Table and boy was it. It was a fancy Arab restaurant and after we ordered they brought out 14 dishes of appetizers from hummus to various salads, pickles baba gounush, you name it and a yummy giant pita. I got a garlic steak and Deb got goose liver kabobs. I hat hot lemon grass tea and they were so unhappy that we didn’t want desert that they brought us watermelon and baklava for free! We basically thought we had died and gone to heaven. We also thought they would have to drive us back to Tel Aviv because we were so stuffed! We did a little shopping (I was desperate for puffs plus for my aching nose) and got back in the car. Nearby was a modern Bedouin village which we drove through (sort of Israeli projects) and then a gorgeous tiny suburb-like place where obviously the wealthy Israeli’s have their homes. It reminded me of Coral Ridge in Ft. Lauderdale. Shabbat had ended and there were lots of folks out rollerblading, walking the dogs, pushing baby carriages (there are LOTS of babies in Israel.)

We then headed back into the desert. We saw herds of goats with traditionally dressed goatherds, we passed many camels on the roadside; we even passed an Ostrich farm! We realized we were not going to make it all the way to Eilat so I devised a scenic route back. Unfortunately, it took us rather close to the Gaza strip. If Deb gets caught in Gaza, she’s immediately fired and deported from Israel! (That’s assuming we make it back from Gaza) (photo:road cuts through giant rocks in desert) (Photo:one of many camel crossing signs we passed) So there were some tense moments, especially since we were only assuming that the pink strip in the on the map WAS the Gaza strip. It’s not clearly marked and the major Israeli highways go through it, so it’s not entirely clear where it is. As the sun was setting and (remember we are in the desert and there are no street lights) we see up ahead a bunch of soldiers, tanks and machine guns! There was some panicking in the car. Fortunately they were Israeli soldiers. I assured Deb and myself that we would see Israeli soldiers before Palestinian ones so we should have plenty of time to turn around before hitting Gaza. Right? The soldiers were waving us through, but Deb was rather concerned we were being waved through to Palestine so she stopped one of them and tried to ask if we were in Israel without coming straight out and saying it that way. Luckily we clearly appeared like lost American tourists with our car full of water bottles, Kleenex boxes, maps, guide books and country music playing on the tape deck! They said the road ahead was closed and guarded by the Israeli soldiers do to the upcoming military withdrawal from Gaza (let me be clear I had NOT navigated us into Palestine) and asked where we were headed. When we told them Tel Aviv, they looked quite shocked and one started to laugh. We were a long way off and pleasure driving in the car is not really an Israeli concept. He showed us how to get there on the map, basically go into the restricted zone and take the first right turn we could. That road would take us to the highway back to Tel Aviv. With some trepidation, we headed into the military zone and believe me, we took the first right available! After a time, we passed through some more soldiers and machine guns and continued on our way in the safe zone.
More driving through desert taking in the scenery in the waning light. We passed a huge array of giant satellites, which I think is one of the space watching places (think Contact.) Our next little bit of excitement came when we came to the intersection which I was pretty sure was still in Israel but due to the aforesaid nebulousness of the map was not entirely sure. We were okay but it was a bit disconcerting to be at the red light in front the sign that pointed right to Tel Aviv and left to Gaza. We were about 5 minutes away from the entrance. A little freaky. The rest of the trip home was uneventful and we made it back and collapsed, glad that we had made it out of the apartment and still with enough time for one more Angle episode! Tomorrow Caesarea.

Week 2

2005-08-03T04:19:00.000-04:00

(photo: night view from Deb's balcony)

Hello all-
Thought I’d better report in on my latest activities or you might stop checking the blog! Things are slower during the week because Deb has to work. Poor thing, summer is her busy season so she leaves at 8 in the morning and doesn’t get home until between 6 and 8 p.m.! So mostly in the evenings we order dinner in and watch Angel episodes. Actually, not a bad way to spend the evening. She has started to feel better so that’s a good thing but then I got hit with a cold. So in between the heat, work and illness, we are not the most energetic bunch around! But I have still managed to have a pretty good time. I spend a lot of time working on my research. I know next to nothing about Israeli cinema or Israeli politics so I have a ton of reading to do…but I am finding it fascinating. I breakup the research with exciting ventures into the city…or relaxing at the pool. Actually, I researched at the pool, which is the best of both worlds. Deb has a gorgeous round pool on the rooftop of her building (28th floor) with piped in mellow jazz music and an amazing view of the city. I’m going to try and take pictures from there later… Very relaxing ...even when little kids are swimming. And it needs to be relaxing to help you recover from the glass elevator ride up the last three stories. I have begun to develop a fear of heights. Well, not actually a fear of heights as much as a fear of plunging thousands of feet to my death. Personally, I feel it is a healthy fear and not one I need to overcome.

I have also been out exploring the city. I desperately needed to get a nail fill so I headed out to Carmel market where I had passed a salon that did fills (not that big over here, you have to hunt for them) Not only did the girl do fills but she did nail art as well so I had cool French tip variation with glitter and gems done. It was interesting arranging it since she only spoke Hebrew and Russian and the other girl in the shop only spoke Hebrew and French and I of course only spoke English…but we managed. Apparently the language of beauty care is universal!

After that I wandered around a bit. Carmel market is right on the edge of Shienken Street, which is supposed to be the hot funky area of town so I decide to stroll that way. The hype is true…It’s sort of a Greenwich village-ish area. Lots of young people, cafes and cool funky stores with more cutting edge fashion. (the fashion over here is basically the same as south Florida) I only meant to go down a little ways and then go back to Carmel market for our dinner but it was so interesting I just kept going a little further. I ended up doing the whole street and came out on Rothschild. Rothschild (named after Baron Rothschild who was a big financial supporter of Israel development years ago) used to be THE place to live..very elegant. It is not quite as upscale as it used to be but it is still very nice. It’s a VERY wide street with two huge rows of trees with benches, walking path and the occasional juice bar in the middle. The buildings tend to be very modern looking (the International or Bauhaus style was very big here in the 30s and the architecture of the city tends to reflect that) with lots of balconies. (Photo: Rothschild)

I kept meaning to get a taxi home but it was so pretty under the trees that I just kept walking. I saw this cute bird catching a worm..it looked just like a regular little brown bird but then the top of his head had a feathery crown like a Kookaburra. I kept walking and low and behold what do I see….a new age bookstore. They are unmistakable. Same as in the states, same bulletin boards with Reiki and Yoga announcements, same tables with kitty cats and, as you get closer, the same smell of incense (they must all buy the same brand wholesale) but everything was in Hebrew! It was so wild because it was exactly like you were in the states, same statues, crystals, even the people inside were dressed the same except that everything was in a foreign language I felt like I was in an Angel episode where I had stepped into one of those alternate universes! I checked to see if there were any yoga classes in English but no luck. At this point it was very very hot and I was slightly lost so after another half hour of wandering I finally hailed a cab and headed home.

Here are a few random photos for your enjoyment. Stay tuned for the next installment: Andrea and Deb in the desert!

View of a strip mall. And the infamous McDrive. .)(photos: sign for a brand of gas station..because of my love of dragons this tickles me everytime I see it. A shot of one of the Nazarene Express buses..just makes me think of a Monty Python sketch.

blog news

2005-07-27T04:00:00.000-04:00

Just a brief update - I've made some changes to the blog. I have learned how to post pictures! So I added some photos to the old posts and will include photos in the future. I have also fixed it so you do not have to register to make comments so feel free to comment away! I have also noticed on re-reading that I use a lot of exclamation points in my posts. I will endeavor to restrain myself.

As for activities, not too much. I went the HaCarmel market and wandered around. It's bit like the French Market in New Orleans, lots of stalls selling fresh fruits and veggies, olives, cheese, nuts etc...along with sunglasses, t-shirts, purses (no Jeff, I did NOT buy a single purse). I bought lots of fruits and veggies for us. I will attempt to cook lamb chops and green beans for dinner tonight. For dinner last night, Deb and I went to a cute little outdoor restaurant on the Mediterranean sea. I had yummy sweet potato raviolis and a great view of the ocean. Afterwards, Deb went home to shower and relax after a long day at work and I went for a walk along the water. I passed a van with speakers mounted on the top and playing what I can only describe as Jewish techno music with traditionally dressed young Jewish men (the long curls etc.. dancing and I think selling religious literature on a card table nearby. (Dorothy, you are not on the Hollywood boardwalk) This was next to the international beach volleyball tournament. An interesting juxtaposition that I think captures Tel Aviv! (And the music rocked, I wish they had been selling CDs) Today I am working on my research- nothing too exciting. More later.

The Sea of Galilee

2005-07-25T23:30:00.000-04:00

Well, Deb and I just got back from the Sea of Galilee. We had a great time. Friday morning we went out and rented a car, loaded up and headed out. This was my first chance to really see the city. Tel Aviv is a very interesting city. In some ways very cosmopolitan and in other ways kind of primitive. Architecture and making things “look pretty” is clearly not a priority. The buildings tend to be square, grey concrete often cracking and rubble-y. Even the nicer ones. There are lots of billboards and large flat signs over stores with their names that gives it a kind of Bladerunner feel at times. Deb says the pollution is a problem with concrete.

We drove down the coast highway and stopped for lunch at Sabarros. I always think it is fun to eat at chains from home and see the difference. Since it’s Kosher, there was no meat on the pizza. Had a yummy mushroom calzone and they have really great salads here. Often you get salads where you would get french-fries at home. And where as fast food salads in the U.S. are usually on the gross side, here they are tasty. I had a green salad with eggplant salad on top. Yum. Deb restrained me from going into the Ikea and we continued on. As we got closer to Galilee, the land got even drier and rockier. Definitely desert country. It’s funny, everything is fairly dry here (meaning the not a lot of green stuff growing.) And as you go down the highway you will pass little areas where there will be a cluster of stores, much like at home as you drive down a highway between towns there will be an exit that has a home depot and other stores. Here the stores are very colorful with huge colored signs and it has this weird effect as if the lumps of stores are like oasis. It’s not like there are howling sands in-between and yet you definitely get that oasis feeling. And people here are very committed to greenery. As you pass apartment high-rises, the balconies will be covered in plants, even trees. I wonder how they got some of them up there! And bougainvilleas everywhere, huge 8 feet high bushes in every color. It’s very odd how they can have so many plants and still have a barren desert feel at the same time.

We arrived in Tiberius, a resort town and one of the 4 holiest Jewish cities in the country, before sunset. Our hotel was an old Scottish Hospital and mission that has been completely redone by the Church of Scotland and turned into a 5 star hotel. Personally, I would have only given it 3 or 4 stars, but that is still pretty damn nice. The main draw for Deb I think, was that it was non –Kosher so we could get non-kosher food. Apparently, if you’re not used to it, the taste of kosher meat can get old. Our hotel was beautiful and right by the water.
(photos of hotel and view of Sea of Galilee from Hotel)

We checked in and took a little nap and headed out for dinner. The hotel recommended a restaurant out at a Kibbutz on the south side of the sea. We drove around Tiberius first and then down to the restaurant. The sea is really an extremely large lake and all around the side are large pull off areas where families come out and camp. It’s a little like driving down in the keys but in a desert! After a few wrong turns we found the kibbutz restaurant. If we had been back home it would have been a barbeque joint. You walked down a plank walkway under trees to get to the building. It was a plank building with a huge porch and seating inside and out and off to the side under huge trees was a separate bar, some pool tables and lots of low tables under the stars. The band was warming up. It was very funky and fun and the food was great. I had a tasty chocolate milkshake made with dark chocolate and mushrooms stuffed with cheese and walnuts. Yum. Then we drove around the Sea of Galilee for a while enjoying the breeze (it cools off a bit at night) and the beautiful view of the full moon on the water. We finally headed back and collapsed after making massage reservations for the next day. I wanted full body but Deb thought it was too expensive so we settled on neck and shoulders. We thought that might give us some energy. Between my jet lag and her bronchitis, neither of us is going too fast. And it is really, really, really hot.

We got up the next morning and had the most delicious breakfast at the hotel. They do a full buffet with omelets and fried eggs, 4 types of fish. A huge array of cheeses, yogurts, cereal, pancakes, crepes, several loaves of homemade breads, fruits and fruit salads and a salad bar. Apparently it’s a traditional Scottish breakfast, a traditional Israeli breakfast and some European and Arab thrown in for good measure. Whatever it was it was tasty. Our plan for the day was to see as much of Galilee as we could stand and then when the heat became to much to bear, we would head up to the Golan heights were it was suppose to be cooler. Our first stop was the Mount of the Beatitudes. It was amazing. It’s where Jesus gave the sermon of the beatitudes and is run by the Franciscans. Man can those guys to do peace. It was one of the most peaceful, tranquil places I have ever been. It was a beautiful garden high on the hill/mountainside overlooking the sea. They have a small, circular church. Beautiful and very peaceful. I don’t know how to describe the place properly but you just felt spiritual, the calm, the peace. I didn’t want to leave. I wandered around taking pictures and just resting. I think I was there for a couple of hours (Deb took a nap in the car) I could have stayed for days. It was beautiful. Finally, I dragged myself away. When we had pulled in they had said it was 5 shekels to get in and 11, 45 to close the gate. We had no idea what they meant but they took the 5 shekels so we went on in. At 12:30, when we went to leave, we discovered what they meant. At 11:45 they will close the gate. We were locked in!! We trekked back up the hill to the convent and after much searching, found someone to open the gate for us. Our first lesson that the times given the guidebook do not match up to reality!

(photos of Mt. of the Beatitudes church and view of Sea of Galilee from gardens at the church)

After that it was too hot to go on the next site so we headed up to the Golan Heights. We decide we would try to drive to Mt. Hermon, which is the highest spot in Israel, where there is a skiing in the winter. Our experience with ski resorts has led us to believe that they tend to be much cooler then other places even in the summer. The drive was very interesting. The countryside is very barren, mostly rocks and scrub and red dirt; It reminded me a lot of Utah. Every so often we would pass a little town. Again a very oasis feeling. Miles of rock and scrub then 50 or 60 houses with lots of trees and flowers and then back to rock and scrub with and occasional half collapsed concrete building. (photo: collapsed anonymous building) At one point we got to a T in the road. On the left was the road toward Mt. Hermon and on the right…Syria!! No guardhouse, no soldiers, just a little metal sign and a gravel road. Of course, if we had gone that way, we would have been arrested and with Deb’s diplomatic passport and us not having diplomatic relations with the county, who knows what would have happened. It was a bit disconcerting to know that that was just a steering wheel’s turn away, especially with my propensity to get lost! But we turned the right way and stopped to talk pictures. Here Israel, there Syria. As we got higher into the mountains it DID get cooler and(photo: left Syria on the right Israel) we were even able to roll down the windows and turn off the air! A miracle like unto the loaves and fishes! (Think Florida right now without air on in the car!) We passed through this cute little town Mas’ade (not the Masada) An Arab town. You can tell the difference right away (and not just because the signs are all in Arabic.) Israelis are clearly not interested in architecture or design. In contrast, this little Arab town with all its half built houses was beautiful. Many of the houses were made out of stone and had arched windows and balconies. Some were painted pretty colors, even the half built ones, with gliders in the front. My favorite was all the houses that would have grape arbors across the top of their front yard with grapes growing down, beautiful and shady and you can eat right off the roof of your porch! We stopped for water at a grocery store. Typical of the town. Just one room with merchandise stacked on the floor and on shelves lining the walls but with beautiful blue mosaic tiles floor! They didn’t sell cold water but the girl working there gave us her own bottle of cold water! What an act of generosity!

We eventually made it to Heron. We weren’t quite sure the car would make it up the mountain. Deb had the petal on the floor and we were going along pretty slow! But we made it. Not a ski resort by any stretch of the imagination. We did see a ski lift. One, small one, that’s it.
We drove along the mountaintop until Deb was able to partially translate a sign that said, “Warning! Road closed to public traffic.” At that point we decided we needed to head back for our massages anyway. After getting a bit lost in the town (despite my attentive navigation after our near visit to Syria) we finally made it back down
the mountain and the drive that took almost two hours to get there, was a mere 45 minutes back! One of the strange things to get used to over here is how close everything is. I am used to U.S. proportions. We drove up about a third of the country and did it in a few hours! (photos: the view of Lake Ram from Mt. Hermon. View out of side of car on Mt. Hermon - with wildlife!)

We were getting pretty hungry on the way back and decided to stop at a McDonalds. They had a McDrive! This is very unusual in Israel. Many of Deb’s Israeli friends don’t understand the concept of drive through. And I love that they call it a McDrive. Deb says the Hebrew translation is the phonetic version of “McDrive” in Hebrew! The burgers sucked but the fries were tasty and the coke was cold, so we were happy. (One of the things I love here is that if you want coke you have to ask for coke. If you ask for soda you get soda water. This makes me happy) We made it back in time for our massages. The masseuse was so good that when we were collapsed back on the bed like limp spaghetti, I said, “You think we could fit in a full body before we check out tomorrow?” Deb said, “I was just thinking the same thing!” We called and sure enough, there was just enough time. For dinner went out to the boardwalk. Lots of booths selling jewelry and fake tattoos and cotton candy. Many seafood restaurants but we went for Lebanese. Some of the best pita bread I’ve ever had! Yummy humus and olives and other little dishes. We wandered back and collapsed.

The next morning brought another yummy breakfast at the hotel and a glorious massage. We checked out and smushed in a little more sightseeing. We went to Capernaum, Jesus’ home from home. It is where he is said to have done a lot of his preaching and met several of the disciples including Peter. (As an aside, one of the things so disconcerting is how close things are…diving by car Capernaum is about 5 minutes from Tiberius. Yet if you were walking it would take quite awhile. Thinking of it as another city seems so odd, it’s not any further than the McDonalds from my house, yet in Jesus’ time it was another city. The difference in distance and space perception that cars make becomes very apparent) Capernaum is another amazing spot. The have an archeological site where they are excavating the old houses. They have also built a church, shaped like a ship. So as not to destroy the site they have built it over the excavation. You can walk under its arched base and look directly the site or you can look through the glass floor in the center of the church. Next door is the ruins of an old synagogue. (Possibly the one Jesus taught at, possibly built in 2nd century A.D. on the same site) It looks like Greek or Roman ruins, pieces of large columns and raised edges. The bible stories just come to life here. You can SEE people sitting around talking as Jesus preached. And the sight of the Sea of Galilee from there, with the waves tumbling, suddenly the story of the storm on the water and the boat nearly capsizing feel so much more real. Capernaum also had that similar feeling of peace and tranquility with beautiful gardens and a small miniiforest with seats underneath to enjoy the shade and talk. Another place I could have stayed quite a while. After we left, Deb pulled over into a little restaurt on the water so I could stick my hand in the Sea of Galilee!

(photo: ruins of synagogue at Capernaum)

We headed back to Tel Aviv taking a scenic route (my code for sort of lost but not really) We went through Nazareth (it is so weird to see Nazareth on a road sign, or my personal favorite, “Nazarene Express” on the side of a bus…I feel like I am in a Monty Python sketch.) Our intention was to stop at the church of the first Miracle (we like to commemorate any miracle that involves wine drinking!), which according to the guidebooks should have been open. Unfortunately it was locked tighter than a drum. After circling for a while, we could only conclude that the church was closed for Sunday! We meandered the rest of the way back, stopping for lunch and groceries (no big grocery stores in the city, so whenever she rents a car, Deb pays a visit to a neighboring town for groceries) We got back in the evening and had much fun bringing all our luggage and groceries to the 16th floor! I see a wheeled cart under the Christmas tree for Deb! All in all, it was a pretty fabulous weekend.

Arrival

2005-07-25T04:48:00.000-04:00

Hello all.

Sorry it’s taken me so long for my first post. I had to get computer access. But I have arrived safe and sound in Israel. With all my luggage! My flight over was actually very good. I was packed and ready on time – a minor miracle and a good omen for the trip. My friends Judy and Terry picked me up and took me to the airport. That made my life much easier and it was good to see them one last time since they will be gone when I get back…moved to the land of no heat.

I checked in and dumped the bags no problem (a feat I wasn’t sure of since they were so heavy I thought they might charge me for an extra seat or just refuse to take them on the plane). I even bought an adorable little purse I had seen when I had gone to the airport to hang with Kendall last week. It’s pink and matches all my trip clothes. On my flight I got a bulkhead seat WITH NO ONE SITTING NEXT TO ME. That was basically a miracle. I had plenty of leg room and room to stretch out and access to all of my stuff. It was glorious.

I was flying Alitalia and they obviously have a different way of doing things. Seconds after the plane leveled off, they served us dinner and that was basically the last we saw of the flight attendants! They had a cart in the back with a bottle of coke and a bottle of water and some glasses. If you wanted something to drink you walked back and helped yourself! And when the flight attendant came by to pick up the dinner trays, he said mine was too messy to take! I mean, it did have trash and stuff piled on it but it was all from the dinner. It wasn’t like I cleaned out my purse onto it! He just looked at me with a supercilious face and said, “It is too messy.” (Said with a superior Italian accent) I stared at him for a moment and asked him what I should do with it (I mean it wasn’t like there was a place to bus your own trays.) He finally handed it to another attendant and said to take it to the galley. I felt that I had been momentarily transported to a New York restaurant with wanna-be-actors waiting on me!

I made the transfer in Milan (with bags, yeah!) and flew the rest of the way to Israel no problem. Deb had told me that customer service is not a priority in Israel and I saw that right away. As I got ready to go through immigration, Mom had warned me that the table with the immigration forms (that they usually give you on the plane) had no sign, but Mom told me where it was located. Sure enough, I saw a small table with clump of people where she had said and walked over. Everyone was just standing around. Then I realized that they were out of forms. Not one to stand around after over 12 hours of flying with a hot shower and bed so close at hand, I tracked down a worker bee. I asked him about the forms and he said I didn’t need one. I said, “Really?” He said, “Well, sometime you do but sometime you don’t. Just get in line and if you need one, they’ll tell you at the counter.” So I followed his instructions and shared the info with several other befuddled travelers in line (it’s important to pool resources when traveling!) And sure enough, no need for forms. (Deb told me later that when she flew in they handed out the forms on the plane. Only she didn’t get one. When she asked the stewardess for one, they said they were out of them. When she asked what to do about it, she was told not to worry she didn’t need one!)

I got my bags (they arrived, yeah! Can you tell I was a little paranoid after last summer?) I immediately caught a taxi with a very nice taxi driver whose sister lives in Hollywood, Florida! What are the chaes of that? I’m visiting my sister in Tel Aviv and he is visiting his sister in Hollywood in December. We had nice conversation on the way in. That is always a nice introduction to a new country.

He dropped my at my sisters place with is the Isrotel Towers. A very swanky hotel right on the Mediterranean. (And just across the street from the embassy…Deb has a 5-minute commute...How lucky is that) and the concierge rang Deb and she came down for me. You have to have a special card to make the elevator stop on her floor. I feel very Mrs. Emma Peel. She has a gorgeous apartment. Two-bedroom, two bath with laundry room and office. Open plan kitchen, living room and dining room and balcony (she on the 16th floor) over looking the Mediterranean Sea. Every window looks out on the beach and the ocean. Marble tile floors, big bathrooms, furnished with nice on-the-elegant-side furniture. A little phone by the front door with TV monitor for the front desk to buzz up any visors and you can check them out on the monitor screen and see who they are, adding to the Mrs. Emma Peel feel. Very swanky digs. Perhaps John Steed will ring me up on the monitor screen and tell me I m needed!

(I'm adding pictures of Deb's hotel and two shots from her balcony)

I settled in and unpacked and showered. There is nothing like a hot shower after a long, 24-hour day of traveling. And then we went around the corner and had Thai for dinner. Nice and yummy. And talked quite a bit. The next day I was still suffering from Jet lag and Deb, who is afflicted with wicked case of bronchitis, couldn’t go into work. Both of us slept on and off throughout the day and didn’t leave the apartment or get out of our jammies! After an early night, we were ready for our next adventure, off to the Sea of Galilee!

Tune in for the next exciting installment, Andrea & Deb at a kibbutz.

Welcome

2005-07-15T19:06:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my blog. This is an experiment which will probably only be of interest to my friends and family (and maybe not to them either!) I am going to document my trip to the Holy Land so that all may enjoy up to the minute info on my adventures. We are hoping for no explosions and no broken bones this trip! Fingers crossed. Tune in next week for the first installment of my chronicles.