I'd post some pics here but uploading pictures means getting off my tooseek and looking for my new camera's software installation CD, and that just ain't happening at 10:46 PM. How about a picture of my goofy winter hat, along with my friend Emil and his matching goofy winter hat?
Prospective olim, you get one of these on your Nefesh B'Nefesh flight(winter only, summer arrivals receive Kabbalah-themed banana hammocks)
This morning, I hiked Nachal Gilabun (yeah, I know it's in Hebrew but it's the closest link I found) and then continued to the Har Bental overlook of Syria. But more importantly, on the drive home, I stopped at Aroma about one minute south of the Kinneret. Amazing how you forget about non-kosher Aromas after even a little bit of time in Jerusalem. Good Lord, the chicken sandwiches and salads are delish. If we can figure out how to justify a Shabbas elevator, we can't figure out a way to legally serve milk and meat together in Jerusalem in the year 2009? Seriously? C'mon, Reform Jews, make it happen.
I had a sandwich with chicken and avocado and whatever the hell I couldn't see while eating in the dark while driving. Perhaps a little light would have prevented me from spilling coffee all over myself (when I lifted cup to lips, apparently the hole in the lid was nowhere near my mouth, thus, hafuch in lap.) By the way, Perez Hilton just reported that the new John Mayer album is to be titled "Hafuch in Lap." So I hear.
Do Israelis know how to eat while driving while steering with your knees or is that stricty an American skill based on our affinity for highway fast food? I don't know how many times I ate a burger while driving between cities in Texas but it's somewhere between one and eight bajillion. Aaaaaaaaaaaand, time to do my Ulpan homework.
Happy Fast of Esther!
Update: Tony, your comment reminded me about the spelling I saw on signs and maps: Gilbon. How in the world could anyone have come up with that spelling? Even if you choose the wrong vowel, don't you have to know something belongs between the L and the B? I wonder what the origin is of using "o" instead of "u". When I first moved to Tel Aviv, I thought the street was called bOHgrashov...I might have actually corrected somebody. Some of you probably saw the sign a year or two ago in the blogosphere that said "homos" instead of "chumus".
I had a sandwich with chicken and avocado and whatever the hell I couldn't see while eating in the dark while driving. Perhaps a little light would have prevented me from spilling coffee all over myself (when I lifted cup to lips, apparently the hole in the lid was nowhere near my mouth, thus, hafuch in lap.) By the way, Perez Hilton just reported that the new John Mayer album is to be titled "Hafuch in Lap." So I hear.
Do Israelis know how to eat while driving while steering with your knees or is that stricty an American skill based on our affinity for highway fast food? I don't know how many times I ate a burger while driving between cities in Texas but it's somewhere between one and eight bajillion. Aaaaaaaaaaaand, time to do my Ulpan homework.
Happy Fast of Esther!
Update: Tony, your comment reminded me about the spelling I saw on signs and maps: Gilbon. How in the world could anyone have come up with that spelling? Even if you choose the wrong vowel, don't you have to know something belongs between the L and the B? I wonder what the origin is of using "o" instead of "u". When I first moved to Tel Aviv, I thought the street was called bOHgrashov...I might have actually corrected somebody. Some of you probably saw the sign a year or two ago in the blogosphere that said "homos" instead of "chumus".
16 comments:
Oh, yeah, sure you can eat in your car on the highway in Texas. The freeways are wide, straight, perfectly flat, and you are either at a dead stop in traffic or flying along on the north side of 80 (that's 130 in metric). In both cases, hands are optional.
Try doing that in a roundabout . . .
1. In the army I learned that chupar is a kind of chocolate candy bar.
2. It's really hard driving while eating if you have stick shift. But I do it anyway.
3. I'v been to Bental about 4 times in the last 3 years and there were always Birthright there. Is that a requierment?
Ben-tal isn't a requirement but it helps fulfill the whole "talk about security/history" component.
Oh G-d, stick shift introduces a whole nother element to it (as does a cell phone). See, this is why I don't buy the whole "Israel is more dangerous than America" thing. The food/phone/radio/OPERATING AN AUTOMOBILE combination is far scarier than walking down Ben-Yehudah Street. So there, haters.
Hi Benji,
*Of course* Israel is more dangerous than the U.S.. Having driven there on many occasions (and being stuck in traffic), I can tell you that Israeli drivers don't need cell phones, stick shifts, or otherwise to DRIVE LIKE LUNATICS.
Actually, it's only really that bad in Tel Aviv. Jerusalem roads aren't that dangerous, they were just designed by a three-year old with a crayon ;-)
And I should add that I'd still rather drive there than in New York. So maybe you do have a point.
Jerusalem is a maze. I can never get to where I plan to there.
I know Jilabon and Bental from being in the army around there...
Bental was one of the hills we had to remember 'cause that was one of the places we were supposed to go if war broke out with Syria.
Jilabon was right behind our base, we did some training there. But what I remember best was Sukkot time sitting in the guard tower on the backside of the base facing Jilabon when a forest fire broke out. Every so often you would here the boom of a mine exploding from the heat....
Although that isn't as funny as the time we went to work in a mine field and found the carcass of a cow draped over the sign.... the rest of the bones were in the crater left from the mine.
Oh and Mia,
If you think Jerusalem is a maze I can't imagine what you think of the Tel Aviv bus station.
There was a time I only knew two places there- where the Egged buses are and where the Dan buses are. I don't think I ever went from one to the other by the same route twice.
I've been planning to write about the TA tachana merkazit for at least a year. It's like an MC Escher drawing...I never know how to get the hell out.
Just added an addition to the end of this post...
banana hammocks
Now that is an incentive worth making aliyah for.
"Hafuchin lap"??? What the hell is a "fucha"???? :) MS
OOPS- I meant "fuchin"
It seems to me that the Israelis I've driven with don't eat in the car. They pull over somewhere, pull out the camp stove, make some botz (or find some herbs to make tea) and chill out. It's not like they have to make good time somewhere.
As compared to my life in the US: almost every errand I had I could do from my car--drive thru eating, drive thru banking, drive thru dry cleaning, drive two blocks to the grocery store, drive to the front door of work and back to the carport, drive to the gas station on the way to driving to the spot where I would do some walking.
And I TOTALLY agree about the TA bus station. That's why I switched to Arlozarov. Only in an emergency with no other choice will I go to the TA central bus station.
Meat and milk together? Surely, Bahn, you've heard this old joke:
G-d: Thou shalt not boil a kid goat in its mother’s milk.
Moses: Oh, you don’t want us to eat meat and milk together. I understand.
G-d: No, I said thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother’s milk. That’s cruel.
Moses: Right. You want us to wait an hour after eating dairy before eating milk, and 7 hours after eating milk before eating dairy.
G-d: No, I said thou shalt not boil a kid in it’s mother’s milk. It’s cruel.
Moses: Oh, forgive me. Now I understand. You want us to have two sets of dishes: one for milk and one for meat.
G-d: Moses, do whatever you want.
Let me just say driving while eating/talking on cell phone/putting on lipstick/drinking hot cofee/changing pants/while driving a stick shift ALL simultaneously with one knee is truly an art form taught all over the US (not just in Texas but also in California, I'm talking San Francisco hills and crazy highways)! Yes, I am THAT person that you should steer clear of....
I have also driven all around Israel, and agree that it is quite the experience. I decided once to yell back at the guy in the car next to me and then was put through a high speed chase through TA during rush hour traffic, which nearly ended in crashing the over priced rental car. And that wasn't as frustrating as getting stuck in a no-exit maze in G-d knows where in Jerusalem for 30 minutes! FUN!!
I havn't been to the Techana Hamercazit in many many years. All I remember from that place is all of the junk for sale there and the CD's which are copies of copies of copies. And the smell of Nargila (Hooka) smoke.
Just remembered going in there once to meet/find a friend from the UK who didn't show up at the place we planned to meet. And this was in the pre-cellphone era.
That must be why I never went in there again.
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