Christmas Trees

To celebrate Christmas in Israel, we wanted to make it special and did not want to scrimp on the Christmas tree.  The challenge though was to find an adequate tree to satisfy the intensely high standards of my Mother-in-law.  Even though in most of Israel there is no sign of Christmas, there is a small community of Christians both indigenous to the country (loaded use of the word indigenous here) and immigrants.  And to serve the consuming needs of this community, there are several places to find Christmas decorations.

Jana and I both were in the US when shopping season began.  The initial dilemma was to either bring a boxed tree back from the US or simply purchase one in Israel.   Even though we could a nice tree for $30 from Wal-mart, I was adamantly against toting in even more luggage back to Israel.  (In the end we checked in 7 suitcases and boxes, half of which was filled with Makai's Christmas presents and half with Jana's cooking equipment and supplies.  I was able to fit my boxers in a side compartment.)  

So we asked Dikla our Pali/Sabbia/house sitter to pick one up for us.  She, being the ever devout Jew had never shopped for a tree before, asked what she should look for.  I said, oh just try finding one that's around 6 ft tall.  After a bit of searching she went to the Christmas bazaar at the central bus station in Tel Aviv, an area which serves the Israeli migrant worker community, and found a tree that was almost 5.5 ft tall with lights and decorations for 400 NIS ($105).  Hearing this in the US, we thought "great. no need scrambling to find a tree when we get back."

So the box was waiting for us when we finally make it back to our apartment in Tel Aviv on the 20th.  Except the box seemed a bit small compared to the Wal-mart one.  Omes and Makai went ahead and set it up.  And by the end of it, all we could do was laugh.  It was a piddly, sorry looking tree, at least by Leon Guerrero standards.

So in search of a new tree I went.  I had to enlist a friend to help me find another one.  He's Jewish and like Dikla never shopped for a tree before.  But he was adept at working the phone and internet.  And we found out there's a nursery in Ashdod that has a Araukaria type tree.  The Jewish National Fund which owns a forest land in Israel was actually selling Arizona ceders for 70 NIS but it on the 19th.  In the end, we went to Jerusalem's old city, more specifically St. Francis street in the Christian Quarter where we found 3 stores selling Christmas tress and decorations.  I found a 2.1 m high tree for 400 NIS and lights for 55 NIS.  I tried negotiating the total down to 400 NIS, and the owner responded with 450 NIS.  Admitting to him I was in no position to negotiate given the demands of my MIL, I handed him the cash and made my way through the narrow alley ways of the old city with Christmas tree box in hand. 

Now, I really didn't know what this tree looked like when I bought it, only that it was 2.1 m tall with a 1.6 m wide base.  The photo of the tree on the box looked good, but who knows.  But lo and behold, once Omes and Makai put up this new tree, we're now thinking, "Is this too big for our apartment?"  Itay, the friend who helped me locate this tree is now my MIL's favorite Jew, just ahead of Benjamin Net&Yahoo.

Peter & Jinah

My brother Peter is tying the knot.  After 42 years of womanizing (just joking, it was only 2 years), another islander has captured the heart of a Nguyen.  This past Sunday, he and Jinah made their engagement official with a traditional Vietnamese engagement ceremony, complete with a whole roasted pig.  Just think, if we had immigrated to Israel instead of the US, we would never have found a pig for the ceremony.  Finding a Filipino on the other hand would not have been a problem. 

Here are some photos from their special day.

 

Jinah (pronounced like Gina) and Peter.  She was mistakenly called "China" by my parents' friend during a toast.

 

Yep, that's them praying.  Yep, that the whole roasted pig they're praying to.

 

Yep, that's a purple bow on the pig.  The skin was crispy and delicious.  On a related note, did you know they stopped the commodity trading of pork bellies on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange?

 

The whole family with the newest addition.

 

 

This has nothing to do with the engagement.  Just a photo of the cousins enjoying the prairie dog area during their trip to the zoo.

Visiting Santa in Boise

This year we will be celebrating Christmas in the holy land with Jana's family.  Bethlehem and Nazarath host many festivities and tens of thousands of visitors during this time each year, and we'll be one of the many pilgrims! 

Because of this, we made an early trip back to the United States to get in our fix of Western Christmas activities, most notably shopping.   We also made time to visit Santa while in Boise.  Atom gave the camera the Blue Steel Zoolander look.

Look for photos of Xmas in Israel in the coming weeks.

Omes visit

Omes was here for exactly 31 days.

Within the 31 days Makai learned that chocolate is the best thing to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner or for dessert. He also knows who owns the chocolate stash and where to find it. One of his favorite sayings... "Omaaaa, chalk-late?". He also tried taking her chocolate croissant last nite for dinner. To which Oma replied, "Makai, no, that's Oma's! Don't you remember... You bought this for me." She won that battle.

Among other things Makai has learned from Oma's visit, he has learned the proper way to cover his mouth when he coughs, he has learned to sing the ABC's during dinner, and all the best sayings... "Whoopsie Daisy" "you who, you whooo!" "Oh shoot!" "Stupid computer" "Ruby fat butt" (Oma was trying to squish Ruby onto a train and her butt was too big) "Crazy" "Pali-anna"

What has Oma learned? There are some nice, polite Israeli's but also inconsiderate and rude Israeli's. Israeli's are lazy and also impatient. Custom food orders are not tolerated in this country unless you go to a fancy restaurant. While at a local cafe Jan ordered sea bass without the olive relish--the waiter said no we can't take it off. To which Jan replied, well, if its on top of the fish, tell the cook to withhold the relish." To which the waiter replied, no, you can take it off yourself.) Goat cheese is pretty good when fried and mixed with beets. Lamb kebobs in the middle east tastes like turkey when you make it for toddlers. Baba ganoush is quite tasty when you call it eggplant hummus. Figs with shrimp, grilled calamari and parmesan cheese taste really good together. Makai's potato, chicken, peanut butter and ginger latke's are AWESOME. (sounds gross but they are pretty good). When Oma buys green bananas they stay green. Vanilla soy milk tastes like custard. Israeli breakfast is quite big and has a bunch of sides which she absolutely loves such as canned tuna salad and tomato gazpacho. As Scott said her first day here... "Wow Omes, bring you to a foreign country and you're willing to eat anything".

All in all, we had a good time and appreciated all the kitchen cleaning Oma did. Scott thanks you for doing his chores. I thank you for doing them as well!

Omes

I get an email from Oma or "Omes" as she is now referred to saying,

"How is it "Uncle Graham" got a full page write up in "Looking for Moses" and Oma got nada???!!!  Nothing! Where's the priority here???"

So here you go Oma.

Oma came to visit for the whole month of October.  During this time, she played with Atom, helped us move, made more photo books, and got fed up with the many rude people she interacted with (this group did not include Jana nor myself.)

On the way to Jerusalem, we drove down the 443 where I pointed out to her the Palestinian villages, the military checkpoints, and the security wall.  She commented, "Well at least the wall is pleasant to look at."  I'm sure the people on the other side don't think so. 

Here are some photos:

Take your dog to work...

Jana and Atom left for the States last Monday.  That left me with Pali.  Rather than have her stay at home for 10 hours where she would have been tormented by Sabbia our cat and had to hold her pee, I took her to the office.  It turns out she was loved by everyone, everyone except for Nachala.  She screamed when she saw Pali. 

Most of the time, she hung out in my office but would tagged along if I had to walk around the office.  She even was right there to greet a job candidate and sit through the interview.  Unfortunately, the second day I brought her to the office, Nachala saw Pali, turned around, exited the office building, and went home.  So having her at the office became "a problem," and she was thus banned.  Sorry Pali. 

Uncle Graham & the Crazy West Bank

Graham came out for a visit.  He's an old friend from Shell.  He interned for me, and then joined Shell the month after I quit.  By working on an offshore oil platform, he has a schedule which some would love while others would hate. It's known as "two weeks on, two weeks off."  He basically works for two weeks straight on the platform, logging 12-16 hours a day.  Then he gets two weeks off.  Being a bachelor without a family, he gave me a call and asked if we would like to adopt him for one of those two weeks.  I guess we could have said no.

But we didn't, and a month later Graham ventures over here on his very first international trip.  Right before he left, Jana asked, "Does he know he needs a passport?"

And for his first international trip, I think he had an awesome time.  It started off a little slow as it's the rainy season here, and it poured for a number of days straight.  But as the sun came out, he took my car and explored Israel.  And in the evenings, he and Atom played.  Atom would jump up and down on the guest bed as Graham simply sat there.  And that's how he became Uncle Graham.

The final two days of his trip, Graham and I ventured into the West Bank and the Dead Sea area.  In the West Bank we visited Bethlehem and Hebron with a guide, and all I can say is "This place is crazy."

Anyways, here's a link to the photos of the trip to the West Bank and the Dead Sea.  I've tried to caption it to provide some context to the photos. 

The Number of Israeli's it takes...

To find a leak in your apartment and decide who foots the bill.

A total of 8 landlords. 
Two are standing in the kitchen.

All landlords decided to hold a meeting in our apartment to decide which apartment was leaking water into the first floor tenants kitchen. The funny part, there was no plumber.  Just a bunch of Israeli's trying to decide which apartment the leak was coming from and where.

The outcome: No one had the patience to troubleshoot, and no one wanted to pay for a plumber. The downstairs owner decided he didn't want anymore damage to his flat so he asked if he could come upstairs and seal our bathroom as well as our neighbors in hopes this would solve the problem.

Being Kosher in China

I just came back from my first trip to China.  Two colleagues and I visited Beijing for business, and one is an observant Jew.  So at least for a few meals, eating out was quite an experience. 

Our first night, we asked the hotel concierge for an all vegetarian restaurant and was recommended Pure Lotus.  It turns out to be a vegan restaurant started by some buddhist monks or something like that. And just to be safe, our observant Jew tried checking with the kitchen that indeed no meat, eggs, or milk were prepared there, but fortunately for us, no one spoke English.  The place was amazing, from the interior decoration to the food.  One of the interior doors of the restaurant was like something from an old palace castle, weighing a ton and requiring 2 waiters to open to allow us in.  And since no one spoke english, we had no clue the size of the dishes we ordered.  By the end of the night, we were fully stuffed, having canceled an order of rice, but somehow making sure we tried three different desserts.   

Pure Lotus.  The place is amazing.

Not all of our meals were Kosher.  Our colleague was considerate enough not to demand that of us for each meal.  Most of the meals, he joined us and either had a diet coke or fruit.  On our third night, he asked if we could once again go to Pure Lotus so that he could get a nice, cooked meal.  I was all for it.  However since that morning we had visited the Israeli embassy, the other colleague thought "Hey let's ask them what place they would recommend."  So rather than enjoy the wonders of Pure Lotus, we enjoyed the anti-wonders of Dini's Kosher Restaurant, the only Kosher restaurant in Beijing.  From the outside, it looked like a fancy banquet hall.  From the inside, it looked like a kibbutz cafeteria, from the yamakas to the long communal tables.  Now I have not had Chinese food in Israel, but I assume the Chinese dishes we had at Dini's were as Americanized or Israelized as that found in America or here.  So being in Beijing, this dining experience was quite the disappointment even though one could consider it "off the beaten track."

Dini's Kosher Restaurant.  This place is not amazing.

And one late evening, I did make it back on the beaten-track to visit Ghost Street and the row of restaurants opened all night long.  I didn't take this adventure to the extreme, by-passing the turtles that were on display on the street.  I did however point to a bunch of photos of various grilled items, only half of which I had any clue of what they were.  All but one turned out decent or edible.  The inedible one looked good, but one bite into the meat made me nauseous.  A swig of beer made me all better. 

Ghost Street.  Avoid the meat in the middle.

One last thought.  Contrary to the view I had before going, Beijing is an amazing place.  There's a great vibe to the place.  There's no doubt it's going to be the dominant power in the near future.

Hiking The Golden Arches

The summer heat has made it an obstacle to explore the many sights of Israel.  Hence, on the first sign of cool air, we ventured out for a simple hike.  The cause of the temperature drop was a downpour a day before, the only downpour of the summer I believe.

We went to Ramat Hanadiv which is a park built by the Rothchilds just north of Tel Aviv.  We hiked there before at the beginning of the summer when the heat was just bearable and walked along the "easy" trail.  This time around, I wanted to explore the other, more advanced trails that would take us to scenic views of the Mediterranean. Not more than 2 minutes into the hike, we ran into trouble.  Jana led the way as Atom was strapped in a backpack on my back.  And what looked like a solid dirt path instantly morphed into soggy mud patch.  Jana sank deeper with each step until all of a sudden one of her shoes became locked in the mud, and she hopped out with just her socks.  I couldn't help but laugh hysterically while she whined for me to get her shoe.  I carefully stepped around the mud and bent down for the shoe, but as I finally pulled it from the mud's grip, I lost my own balance and subsequently also my shoe in the mud.  Jana had to come save both Atom and I.  She said Atom had the look of terror on his face during the whole ride.  We decided to forgo the advanced trail for the same one we hiked the previous time.  It turned out to be trouble free. 

Evidence of our misfortunes.

Pali saw no problem with the mud.

On the way home from our hike, we decided to give McDonald's here in Israel a try.  Long story short, don't give it a try.  Photos below of our dining experience.

Like others in the US, this McDonald's is next to a gas station.

The Texas specials made me feel like home (for a split sec).

I wanted to see if it tasted the same as in the States.

Then I remembered that I never ate Big Macs in the States

Atom's Happy Meal.  His toy was better than his food.

Worse than the Big Mac.

The fries were decent, especially with lots of ketchup.

Atom passed out from hunger.

Hagana

Where all the Chamarro Jews settled in Israel...

The "Ha" in front of a words translates to "The" in Hebrew.

A special shout out to "Soap-ie"!

Oma arrived 3 weeks ago with 3 suitcases for her one month stay.  One suitcase was filled with special toys from "Soap-ie".   He really enunciates the "soap" part. 

He must remember her trip to Israel.  Every day AND nite we read the photo book "Omes" made from the Limtiaco's travel.  He kisses Sophie and when he doesn't see her on a page he has a whine fest saying "soapie, soapie, soapie!"  He flips through the pages til he finds her and then hugs and kisses the photo.  He even dresses himself in the same outfits he wore while they were here.  His "monkey" (aka small paul) shorts, tevas,  bull shirt, etc.   Yesterday I caught him trying to feed a photo of Sophie a lollipop.  He said "Soap-ie, lollpop!" Today he asked for her camel back thermos.  Luckily I was prepared and had Scott pick up one with dinosaurs when he was visiting the states in September.  

He made this special Shout out to Sophie video before we moved from our Alroy'i apartment.  I figured she would receive his Thank you video before the Israeli post office would get to sending a thank you card, considering the country has been closed for almost 3 weeks.

Todah Cousin Sophie!  We miss you!

Conductor hat from Sophie.  Matches his
Small Paul pj shirt! Cho Cho train here we come!

Practically a month off!

This October has been filled with Jewish holidays.  And when I say holidays, I mean vacation days!  I've had the luxury of a series of four day weekends, and overall a month of productive laziness.

The festivities started with Rosh Hashana which literally translates to "Head of the Year" or New Years.  It was quite funny when a neighbor greeted Jana with "happy new year," and only then did Jana realized the Rosh Hashana holiday was New Years.  

We were invited to a traditional New Year's BBQ at our friend's parents' place.  The mother is Moroccan, and like most Moroccan mothers, kept the food coming and coming.  At one point, Jana was being served like a queen.  Atom, on the other hand, warmed up to the hosts and formed an impromptu band.  

The day after, the Vinegars joined us on a hike through the Kula forest.  We started at the Alexandroni monument commemorating one of the many battles between the Israelis and Arabs in 1948.  The Israelis won this one.  The hike then lead through the Kula forest and to a 2000 year old Roman tomb that is still standing.  A hike that I expected to be short ended up lasting 2.5 hours and also brought us views of motocross bikers and horseback riders.  Israel is indeed quite diverse.  More photos of Rosh Hashana can be viewed on our Picasa web album. 

Rosh Hashan was followed by Yom Kippor or Day of Atonement.  It is preceded by a week of asking for forgiveness, both my God and by the people you have somehow crossed.  I was waiting for a host of apologies, but they never came.   I tried reminding Jana, but she ignored me.  Yom Kippor itself is a solemn day where Jews fast and do not drive among other rituals.  That means the streets rather than being filled with crazy and wild Israelis drivers are filled with crazy and wild Israeli kids on bikes.  Atom and his little bike joined the festivities.   

The morning of Yom Kippor, we took our bikes and headed towards the major highway cutting through Tel Aviv.  It's amazing that a bustling city of over 3 million people can seem so deserted except for the random biker looking to enjoy the once in a year day of peace and quiet.  More photos of Yom Kippor can be found seen here.

And for the past week, we've been celebrating Sukkot or Feast of the Tabernacles.  The holiday commemorates the Israelite's 40 year journey through the desert back to the homeland by erecting tents to represent the Tabernacles used during the journey.  Today's Sukkots are draped with cloth and palm leaves and decorated with shiny ornaments.  It's like a Jewish version of decorating a Christmas tree!  Once again we went to our friend's place for Sukkot dinner, but this time it was served inside the tent.  Atom was entralled with all the decorations however did not want to take part in wearing a yamaka like his dad.

Sadly, work starts again on Sunday. 

Ice Skating in Israel

One evening last week, we stopped by the old train station that was recently renovated and now serves as a yuppie shopping center.  It's right next to our neighborhood and has a toy store with large stuffed animals that Atom loves to visit.  

This evening, the center was hosting a festival.  And to our surprise, there was an outdoor ice-skating rink.  The rink was small, and the skaters were wearing helmets.  

As we approached the rink, it turns out it wasn't ice at all.  The floor was made of white plastic boards which are quite obvious in the photo below.  Maybe this is why Israel doesn't do so well at the winter olympics.

Monsieur Nguyen

Scottie is back in the news again! This week an interview with him by Jean-Patrick Grumberg was featured in a French blog dzrr.fr  An english translation of the interiew was then featured in The New English Review. For all those who do not read french I suggest either a) reading the second article or b) reading the first article using google translate.

What's funny is Jean-Patrick conducted the interview in English and translated it to French for the dzrr.fr article.  The New English Reivew article seems like a google translation of the French version back into English.  I assure you that Scottie's English skills haven't deteriorated that much.

And one last thing.  There is a comment posted on Scott's PRI interview by Kristine Santos, "Dr. Nguyen's contribution to science, energy, and fashion get 2 thumbs up." Looks like Scott is reliving his childhood and the feathered hair style is making a comeback! Check out his photos. His "wings" are protruding from his glasses. He did get a hair cut a few days later once he realized his hair was beginning to feather.

Apartment hunt

So after two months of searching and many sympathies shared to us by Israelis also frustrated by the apartment hunting process, we are glad to announce that we have signed a lease on a new apartment. It's a reasonably priced three bedroom, two bath recently constructed apartment. The two greatest things about this apartment are: 1) we get to stay in the Neve Tzedek neighborhood which we love and Jana and Atom are considered "locals" by the community and especially by the retail shops. 2) the rent is almost 20% lower than what we are currently paying and almost half the price of what the landlord has our current apartment listed for (more on that in a bit).

 In this apartment hunting process, we learned a few things about the Tel Aviv housing market:

1. Overall rent prices are disproportionately high compared to the average salary of Israelis. The recent tent protests which originated as a protest on the high price of rent are indeed valid, especially given the skyrocketing rates seen the past few years. 
2. Many landlords' expectations and resulting asking price are completely unrealistic. We saw apartments that were shit-holes with high asking prices, and we saw nice renovated apartments with exorbitant asking prices. Most of those remain on the market even after many months of vacancy. I mean why would someone rent these places when there are also reasonably priced places on the market like the one we found? 
3. As much as we tried not to use a real estate agent to avoid the 1 month fee, it was almost impossible for the apartments in our neighborhood. Even when we were able to contact the landlord directly, they directed us back to their real estate agent. Why do I have to pay a finder's fee when I did all the work?
4. Google translate and google chrome's automatic translation function are awesome. 
5. I hate my current landlord and am so glad we are moving out. 

One last parting shot at my current landlord: how can you ask for 16000 nis ($4300) a month when there is mold growing all under the floor and the moisture continues to cause the dry wall to bubble and crack?

The 443

A few weeks back, I decided to get a early start home after a busy day at work.  I got on the highway and took my normal route from Jerusalem back to Tel Aviv.  Oh what a bad decision.  Two minutes into the drive home, I ran into a traffic jam, a traffic jam that lasted 3 hours long.

Rather than take the more popular Highway 1 route between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, I take The 443.  The 443 is generally 15-30 minutes faster than Route 1, and when there is traffic on Route 1, which there generally is, the time savings can stretch into hours.  The main caveat though is the fact that the 443 cuts straight through the West Bank into occupied territory. 

The route itself is beautiful.  Palestinian villages, perched on hilltops, line the scenery with their minarets quite prominent.  Near the roadside though, the scenery is not so nice.  As this is a route used by Palestinians and Israelis, it is "secured."  Between the road and villages in the distance is a mix of high walls and barb wire fences.  And at the start and end of the route are military checkpoints.  And it was at this military checkpoint which is right after the junction to Ramallah in which I was stuck in the 3 hour traffic jam. 

Below are some photos of The 443 that I took "while driving."


View Larger Map

Military checkpoint entrance

IDF soldiers man the checkpoints w/ M16s prominantly displayed

Hard to see but a Palestinian village off in the distance.

Ramallah junction

Public Radio International Debut

Hey everyone, Scott made Public Radio International!  We are so excited and proud of him! Here is a little excerpt to get you started.   

"...There is an old joke here in Israel, when Moses was leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land, he took a wrong turn.  Instead of ending up in  oil rich Saudi Arabia,  he ended up in the land of milk and honey, but no oil.  These days, there’s a new twist to the story…"  ~Daniel Estrin

Scott:  "Maybe he didn’t turn the wrong way, its just that he needed a little bit of time."  

Next up, Jean-Patrick Grumberg.   

Check out the URL and click on Play Audio to hear his interview. You will also see a slide show of Scott and other colleagues at the drill site located towards the bottom of the page.  

Audio File:  
http://media.blubrry.com/world/p/www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/media.theworld.org/audio/092620116.mp3

Article:
http://www.theworld.org/2011/09/slideshow-israels-oil-dreams-kick-off-environmental-battle/

Beach day with Sophie and Makai

I just discovered this unpublished post written 2 months ago.   

Sometime in July, the day Aulii, Tom, and Isla went to Jerusalem I had the opportunity to stay in air conditioning, hang out at the beach, eat pizza, all while watching Sophie and Makai. I am proud to say not one tantrum was thrown by the two kids!  A tiny bit of whining by Big Mak but that's expected when he tries to communicate.

The morning started off like every morning. Makai and Sophie watched "George" and " Max", Sophie danced and sang "I do not like green eggs and ham" while Makai tries to copy her.  By 915 we were out the door and heading to the beach!

Makai, cover my feet in sand like this...

Ok, i guess i will do it.

Makai wanting to walk home.

After beach drink.  Ice cold apple juice.