Thursday, February 28, 2008

WE DID IT!!

Well, it's over. We did it. We survived. We conquered Ulpan!!
Our final test was today at 1:00 p.m. (Israel time, of course) It was challenging to say the least but we completed it, and that's something.
It was a very exciting day, a very happy day and a very sad day for me. I so enjoyed this adventure. I did not want it to end. It's such a fascinating language and it just makes sense to me. I thank God for giving us an amazing and challenging teacher. Sarah pushed us, believed in us and inspired us to advance, to learn and to grow. I hope our paths cross again. I also thank Him for giving me a mathmatical mind which greatly contributed to my ability to pick up on the structure of the language. I am praying for the opportunity to continue my study of Hebrew once we return to the States.
I am sad because I am going to miss seeing every day the friends we made in our class. We formed a bond as we struggled through the class and getting used to life in a different country, a different culture among a different people. I admire those who have made "Aliyah"; immigrated to Israel. It takes a lot of courage and strength to do such a thing. Sarah, our teacher, even commented on what a difficult and challenging thing it is for them to do. She said she did not know if she would be able to do such a thing. I especially admire those who came by themselves, without friends and family. What courage!
It's amazing to me that I got to meet and know people from almost ten different countries. For the time we were together everyday, it was as if we were one people group, without differences, without language barriers, a family. We struggled together, we laughed together, sometimes we even cried together. We invested over 500 hours of classtime together. (This does not include the number of hours spent studying outside of the classroom!) It was a bonding experience and I will treasure each of my classmates always. I pray that we will meet again. I know there are some who we will stay in touch with and visit when we return to Israel. For this I am thankful.
Now we begin the next phase, the next adventure. One more month in the Land.
Then comes the next adventure....Returning to the USA!

p.s. I must thank my sweet friend Kirsten for loaning me her camera for our party yesterday. Ours is still fried. We are in the process of researching what is out there and what is the best camera. Got any opinions? Let me know!
p.p.s. coming soon.....the final number of verbs we learned in the six months we were in Ulpan.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Last day of Ulpan



Today was our last day of class at Ulpan. Tomorrow is our written test, and our final day to be in "Keetah Aleph"...in English - class level "a".
We learned for the first couple of hours then pushed the tables together to make one big table. On the table we laid out all the goodies we had brought and sat around the table together. We spent the rest of the class time talking and eating. We gave Sarah several gifts we had bought her. She gave us several special things she had prepared for us. She read a letter she wrote to all of us in which she spoke about each of the people in the class, describing what was special about each one. It was a very bitter sweet time for all of us. I almost cried three different times. We cannot believe it's over, well, almost over. There is still that one little thing we call a TEST!!!
I have loved this experience. I have enjoyed learning Hebrew so very much. I am so blessed by the new friends we have made; friends we will continue to visit in the future when we return to Israel. I am so thankful that Sarah was our teacher because I believe that she is the best teacher in that Ulpan. I am very sad it's over. It went too fast.
Below are some pictures from the day.

This is the street sign of the street Ulpan Gordon is on. (I know I'm a nerd. It's OK.)


















This is one view of the outside of the building. There is also a library here.



















If you look at the above picture and go to the left a bit, this is the view to the entrance.




















This is the entrance to Ulpan Gordon.

























This is just inside the door. There a two coffee vending machines, one with soft drinks and one with snacks. We sat down here on our first morning, eagerly waiting for class to begin.




















Just to the left of the above shot, posted on the wall were short texts that our class had written entitled "My Opinion of Israelis". Sarah was so impressed with our texts she should them to the manager of the school and she asked to post them. So they have been downstairs, in the entrance, for everyone to read for the last couple of weeks. The close up is of my text. Can you read it?


























This was our class number. The sign says "Room 32". We got to walk three flights of stairs every morning! Good for the legs! (Again, I know I'm a nerd.)




















Here we are today, our last day, still being crammed full of Hebrew by Sarah. You can see some are zoned out, some are writing feverishly (Brent) :) and some are holding their head in pain (Yudith, although not really...she was one of the best in the class). Notice all the females? By the end of the class there was only one other male in the class and he is from Russia and speaks NO English! Still, he and Brent stuck together!





















This is a view from the third floor to the entrance. This is during the break and most of the people out there are smoking and that is the only exit from the school so we got to walk through a thick cloud of smoke every day at 10:00 a.m. This I will not miss though I might start having nicotene cravings from the second hand smoke next week.






















Here we are getting out all the goodies and getting ready for the party.














Here's the spread!!! Sarah made a cake for us...it's in the silver pan cut into servings. She wanted to make sure we had something homemade!
Here we are presenting Sarah with her gifts.
Here is our class. From Right to Left, the Hebrew way. Leonid, Russia; Tracy, Belgium; Ilana, England; Mandy, Belgium; Brent, USA; Kate (and baby), USA; Yudith, France; Me, Sarah, our teacher; Jhana, Russia; Laura, Germany; Victoria, Russia; Barbara, Brazil; Katie, England; Karen, USA; Annia, Switzerland.




I'm telling you, I tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to get these pictures and captions straight and orderly.....to no avail!!!! Sorry about the mess but there's nothing I can do. Hope you can figure it all out. I have no doubts that you will because you are all so very, very smart!!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Another small difference

I was thinking today about another of the small differences in restaurants here.
In the U.S. of A. when you eat at a restaurant, sometimes before you are even finished with your meal your waiter/waitress brings you the bill. They want to move people through as fast as possible so as to make as many tips as possible.
In Israel, you have to ask for the bill. You could literally sit there for hours and they would not bring you the bill. You absolutely have to ask for the bill.....every time! You would think with it being this way that they would have trouble with people walking out without paying. This is not the case. Israel doesn't really have a lot of crime like that. It's actually refreshing.
Anyway, there's another small thing I thought you might get a kick out of.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

One of the many differences

We are out of groceries.
I need to go to the store.
I did not go to the store today.
Brent and I went out to eat.
We went just down the street to one of the bajillion little cafe type restaurants in our area. They serve traditional Jewish food. It was great. We had goulash with mashed potatoes and green beans.
As we are sitting there eating I see something move in the corner of my eye. I look up and in a chair against a wall is a black cat. It looked like it had just woken up from a nap and was licking it's paws. It made me pause for a moment. I wondered if it was a stray that wandered in. Then I noticed the waitress spoke fondly to it as she walked by. I was pretty sure it was not a stray. Then I continued eating my delicious dinner.
This would never fly in the good old U.S. of A. Talk about Health Code violations. But it's pretty common around here. People take their dogs into restaurants with them, usually only sitting in the outdoor seats but in the winter those outdoor seats are enclosed. They go into the pharmacy with them, into the kiosks. Someplaces have a spot where you can tie your dog up outside the door but you just never know when you are going to see an animal inside a store. This is just one of those many differences between here and the States.

Friday, February 22, 2008

A picturless blog....that's no fun

Well, friends. Our camera is on the fritz. It started going bad a while back, but now I think it has officially kicked the bucket. I don't know what to do. I have so many things I want to take pictures of to show you but now that seems impossible.
I would love to go buy a new camera but that takes money; money we don't have at the moment. Plus, everything is about twice the price here as it is back in the States. So, that's not gonna fly. So, maybe I'll just buy some disposable cameras, have the pictures put on a disc and we'll see how that goes. Until then, this is a picturless blog. Sorry.
On a brighter note, I went to the mall today with Kirsten. On Thursdays and Fridays they have a food festival. There are vendors lined up along the wall in one area selling delicious looking food. I didn't have any but Kirsten got an amazing looking potatoe, (does that have an "e" at the end of it? I never can remember.) with sour cream and beans. It smelled good too!
The mall felt, in some ways, like I was in the U.S., but in some ways I knew I was in Israel.
What felt like the States:
  • There are stores that look like what you would see in the states; clothing, sport, decor.
  • There is a small food court

What felt not like the States:

  • Israelis, speaking Hebrew everywhere
  • Prices in shekels
  • Signs in Hebrew
  • The food court food is very much not like American food court food; falafel, shnitzel, loads of rice and cous cous, (don't know how to spell that either) lots and lots of vegetables - and not fried.
  • People smoking in the mall, even though it's technically illegal
  • Security guard checks your bag before you enter the mall
  • Grocery store in the mall
  • Gym in the mall (at least I've never seen a gym in a mall in the States)
  • I even saw a man sleeping, on his back, fully stretched out.

Wish I could show you pictures but you'll just have to use your imagination. It's good for your brain.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Random Thoughts

Brent and I were just talking about our longing for a nice big route 44 drink from Sonic. Oh, it's the little, simple things in life that you miss when living in another country, like ice and free refills.

We only have FIVE more days of class. Well, technically 4 1/2 days. We have class tomorrow, Thursday. Then Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we only learn half of the day then the other half is a party! Yea. Then Thursday, February 28 is our written test. I'm a little sad it's almost over. Brent is not.

I need to go to the supermarket and don't want to. It always tries my patience and my grace.

Brent and I are looking forward to sitting on comfortable furniture again, i.e. our LazyBoy recliner!

I can't believe we have been here for 5 1/2 months. It seems like a few weeks, and like forever. I am ready to see our family and friends and our dog, but don't really want to leave here.

What will we do without hummus? I'm going to have to learn how to make it.

That's all I've got for today.

Monday, February 18, 2008

A little something about the weekend

It's cold and rainy and dreary and I have not woken up all day long! (It's 7:20 p.m. by the way.)
Even so, here is a little something about our weekend.
Friday afternoon we went to Kefar Yona. Our friends Rami and Gabbie Danieli live there and invited us for Shabbat dinner. So Brent and I caught a bus from Tel Aviv to Netanya (about 45 minutes by bus). Rami picked us up, and then another friend of theirs. We spent the late afternoon catching up. Then around 6:30 dinner began.
Rami did kidush which is the blessing over the bread (challah) and the fruit of the vine. This tradition is kept in Jewish homes all over the world and is a very special thing to be a part of. Rami then read Proverbs 31 with his arm around Gabbie and prayed over her and their children. It was really sweet.
Then we ate an amazing meal that one of their three daughters had prepared. Dinner was followed by more catching up, drinking coffee and eating a wonderful pie, doing puzzles with their nine year old son Micha-el, and trying to keep up with the Hebrew being spoken in the house. I understood most of what was said! Yea! We spent the night with them then went to congregation with them in Tel Aviv. After a great service in which we heard about a trip they had taken to West Africa and a time of fellowship, Rami drove us home.
It was a nice get away from Tel Aviv and fun to be with other like-minded friends!
(FYI - their children are blessed to already speak THREE languages!!! Rami is Isaeli born so there's the Hebrew. Gabbie is originally from Switzerland and so there's the Swiss German. They both speak English and they all lived in the States for three years so there's English. What blessed kids, to already speak so many languages!)

Friday, February 15, 2008

The 08 Quake

I experienced my first earth quake ever. Talk about an adventure!
Today, Friday February 15, 2008 there was a 5.0 earthquake in Lebanon that shook our apartment in Tel Aviv.
Brent and I were sitting at the kitchen table and I felt everything start to sway. I looked up and saw the plant in the corner also swaying and I heard one of the closed bedroom doors hitting the frame over and over. I looked at Brent and asked if he felt it. He said he did. We immediately began searching the web for info, to see if it had registered anywhere. Brent surfed what T.V. channels we have to see if anyone was talking about it. I even called my friend Kate, from Ulpan to see if she was at her apartment and had felt it. She was not and did not.
About an hour later it popped up on the Quake Sheet. If you want to see it go to http://www.drudgereport.com/, scroll down to the bottom and click on Quake Sheet and follow the links to the region of Israel.
Crazy stuff. Brent is going to get t-shirts made for us that say:
WE SURVIVED THE QUAKE OF 2008
p.s. Don't worry, we're fine. It was just a little sway.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Funny Language Stuff

Today, Sarah, our teacher, wasted no time in starting to prepare us for the written exam in two weeks.
In one part of the test we have to write a formal letter. So today, we spent the first three hours practicing this skill. We wrote eight formal letters today. As we would finish one or two we would take them up to Sarah to check.
As she was reading one of the letters one of my classmates wrote, Sarah started cracking up. I have never seen her laugh this hard. She then tries telling us what this classmate had written. But it took all of us a minute to catch on. I guess our brains aren't fully recovered from yesterday. But the mistake was so minor that it was hard to hear at first until Sarah said it in English.
One of the letters we were writing was a complaint to a doctor about his receptionist who was rude and always arrives late to work. This classmate of mine was trying to say she waited half an hour for the receptionist to show up. The word "hour" in Hebrew is pronounced sha-ah. Instead she wrote sha-Jah which is the word for "year". According to this classmate's letter, she waited half a year for the receptionist! I would have complained too!
It may not sound that funny in this post but Sarah thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen and was laughing so hard she was crying and had us all laughing with her.
It was a nice reprieve from the stress filled week.

Oh, yeah! Happy Valentine's day! What are you doing to celebrate the day of love?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

We Survived!

Our oral exam was today and we survived.
It was nothing like what we expected. This was a little unsettling. I had planned and practiced and studied and knew how to answer certain questions and say certain things and I sounded really smart. Then I got in the room and the teacher giving the exam threw all kinds of new and unplanned questions at me. Inside I was screaming, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING LADY? THIS IS NOT WHAT I WAS TOLD WOULD HAPPEN. YOU ARE NOT FOLLOWING THE ORDER OF THINGS". But on the outside I was speaking as well as I could, answering her crazy, unexpected questions and trying to stay composed. When it was over I practically floated out of that room feeling as if a huge weight had lifted off of me. I saw Brent come out of the room too and he had such a look of relief on his face as well.
We, apparently, don't get to know our scores but Sarah said she talked to the teacher giving our exam and said we all did really well and got very high scores. I hope she was telling the truth and not just trying to make us feel good.
Now we begin preparing for the written test in two weeks. Oh joy.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Oral Exam

Oh boy. Our oral exam is tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13, 2008.
I'm not so nervous right now but I'm sure the butterflies will start flying in my belly as soon as the alarm clock goes off tomorrow morning.
The good thing is that Sarah, our teacher, allowed us to practice, in class, with each other, for almost the entire class today. We will also have time tomorrow in class to practice as well.
To my understanding, this is how it will go tomorrow.
We will arrive to class at the usual 8:15. Sarah will give us the option to have a lesson or practice with her and with each other. (Pretty sure we will choose the option of practicing!) Then three at a time will leave the class. We will go to wait outside another classroom. Then we will be called in to take our exam.
Here is what we have to do during the exam. First there is a small interview. What's your name? What's your address? When did you arrive in Israel? Are you satisfied in Israel? Do you have contact with Israelis? What's you opinion of Israelis? What will you do after Ulpan? What will you be doing in five years? Second we will have drawn two cards while waiting outside that are situations that we have to talk about. Such as, your neighbors had a loud party last night. You complain. Or, your friends gave you a birthday gift. Thank them. The final portion is talking about a text that we have written during the course. We wrote several so we got to choose which one we want to talk about. I will be talking about my dream house.
Then it's over. Hallelujah!
Then Sarah starts cramming as much information as possible into our already overflowing brains in order to prepare us for the written exam in two weeks. Oh boy.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Hebrew Calendar

Today we finally learned about the Hebrew Calendar and how it numbers the days and how it is different than our calendar, the Gregorian Calendar. Here are a couple of the main differences.

  • The Gregorian calendar is a solar calender.
  • The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar.
  • The Gregorain calendar has 365 days per year.
  • The Hebrew calendar has 354 days per year. (Brent would like you to notice that that is an 11 day difference!)
  • The Gregorian calendar year is 2008 with year 0 being approximately the year Jesus was born, give or take.
  • The Hebrew calendar year is 5768 with year 0 dating from creation.

What is also interesting to me about the way they count their days is they do not use numbers. Every Hebrew letter is also a number. The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet (aleph-bet) is aleph, and it equals 1. The second letter is bet and it equals 2, and so on. After that, though, they don't just go up by one. At 10 you start to combine letters to equal 11-19 then they start going up by increments of 10 ending with 400. Confused yet? We just learned this today so don't think I'm an expert. I have papers in front of me explaining it. But I think it's really interesting. So the Hebrew date today is Daleth (fourth letter of the Hebrew aleph-bet) , Adar, which is the Hebrew month, year 5768. For those who know this stuff already I must clarify that it is month Adar aleph. For those who don't know, it's a little complicated to explain right now but basically it's a leap year in the Hebrew calendar and the month of Adar happens twice this year.

This also means that every word has a numerical value. Hmmmm. "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six." Revelation 13:18 Now, my husband is the Bible prophecy teacher and maybe some day he will go into deeper teaching on this, but think about it. I'm not claiming to know the name of the "beast" but is it possible we could figure it out when the time came? Think on that for a while.

In what other ways could you see that this information could bring more understanding to scripture?

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Pizza

I used my newly learned Hebrew to order pizza tonight! That's right! I ordered pizza in Hebrew. Well, part of the conversation was in Hebrew! The problem is that people speak so stinking fast. What is the deal? We all do it. Everyone. In every language.
But this is something you don't think about until you are trying to speak a different language, or worse, trying to hear a different language. I can say (in Hebrew) I..............want.............to....order.................two............................pizzas.......................and..a......................bottle..................of........Coca..Cola...............................Thank.............you. And they say (in Hebrew) What'syournameWhat'syouraddressWhatdoyouwantonyourpizzas? And I say (in English) WHAT???
It can be a bit frustrating at times but I was still very excited when I got off the phone.
I think one thing that is encouraging is when they reply to me in Hebrew when I speak to them in Hebrew. It makes me think my Hebrew is believable.
I'm pretty sure I have the people at my new hangout, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, convinced that I am a native Hebrew speaker. I only order in Hebrew and understand what they say to me. Granted, I say (in Hebrew) Chai Latte. Regular. For here. And they say (in Hebrew) What'syourname. And I say (in Heblish) Tonya. And they say (in Hebrew) Anythingelse? And I say (in Hebrew) No. This kind of conversation can fool even the brightest of people. Really. Ask the employees of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Brent R's First Appearance

Shalom to all our loyal readers,

This is my first appearance on the blog and quite honestly I am not sure where to begin. There is much going on in Israel and around the world these days that I would love to vent...or blog about but don’t have the time right now to do so. So I will limit this initial blog to a few thoughts about living in Israel, which is, as you well know, our current “adventure”.

To say that our time here has been an adventure is not exactly accurate. Living here feels as normal as anything I have ever done. Trying to force my brain to accept a new language which is composed of new letters, new sounds, and is written from right to left THAT is the adventure. I can honestly tell you that I have never done anything that has tapped me more physically, emotionally and intellectually. Yet I can also tell you that I truly love learning the language though I confess to spending too much time day dreaming about a better way to do it or at least an easier way.

Next week we have an oral exam. Hmmm, that should be interesting. We did a class practice run yesterday and it wasn’t too bad. Basically we have 6 "situations" that involve circumstances where you thank someone, complain about something, request or order something, invite someone to something, apologize for something, or make a recommendation about something. The situations are on cards and we will be required to select two of them and respond to it with three or four sentences. We also have to answer questions about one of the papers we have written over the course of the class and also answers questions from an interview sheet.

Getting past the stress of the upcoming oral test and the final written test will be a welcome moment. But I am certain that when it is all said and done I will leave the ulpan with more fond memories than bad. We have made many new friends from our class which we will enjoy visiting on our future trips to Israel. Albeit most of them are female as I am apparently the ONLY surviving male in our class. All others have given up, changed classes or just moved on to other endeavors in the Land.

So that’s it for my first ever blog, which to be honest just feels like a mass email but oh well.
Thanks for sharing our adventure.

Shalom from Tel Aviv,

Brent R Avery

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Coffee Shop

These past three days around 2:00 p.m. I have walked to a great little coffee shop to study and do my homework. I love going there. It has a great ambiance and fun music. There are comfy leather chairs and bookshelves with a few books. They have a great menu and it is the only place I have been able to find a Chai Tea Latte. I love Chai Tea Lattes!
Some of you know that I worked at Starbucks before moving to Israel. When you work at Starbucks, one of the perks is getting to drink whatever you want while on the clock. I got addicted to the Chai Tea Latte. I like this drink either hot or cold, depending on the weather and I always added an extra pump of Chai and made it with nonfat milk. Needless to say, I have been having withdrawals since moving to Israel. Thanks to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, my withdrawals exist no more.
All this is to pose a question. Why are coffee shops and little cafes so cool? What gives them that great ambiance? Why do people flock to these places with their laptops and books? Why do we spend hours in these stores doing our homework, chatting with friends, surfing the web? Why do we spend $5.00 on a great cup of coffee? (Ok, I actually get a little annoyed when people say this to me. It's not accurate and I'm a faithful Starbucks employee....well, past employee who might go back to work there when she returns to the States. Sorry for the rabbit trail.)
If you are wondering if people participate in this activity in Israel as much as in the States, well, yes, and maybe even more so than in the States. But why? I don't really have any answers. Sorry. I really just want to know your thoughts on the subject. So let me know what you think.

p.s. I'd like to know what you think of the new look too? There are only so many choices!

Monday, February 4, 2008

Top Five

My friend Natalie gave me a good idea for a blog. (Thanks Nat!)
The top five things Israel has that the U.S.A. does not. Here's my top five.

#5 The knowledge that every place you visit here has some Biblical story connected to it. It completely changes the way you read the Word.
#4 The Dead Sea. If you haven't yet experienced floating in it you need to! You can also enjoy a nice mud mask for your entire body! Makes your skin so silky smooth.
#3 The Sea of Galilee. Not only a beautiful place but most of Yeshua's ministry took place in this area.
#2 The Temple Mount, where the Temple of God stood and the Glory of God resided.
#1 The birth place of Yeshua, the Messiah.

I've included a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The Eastern Gate of the City wall and the Eastern wall of the Temple Mount

The cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered

The sea of Galilee on a foggy day

The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Bloggie Blahs

I know this blog is called "The Avery Adventure" but apparently there aren't many adventures going on these days. I feel a bit of the bloggie blahs. Don't got nothin' to say. Hopefully I'll snap out of it and we will have some adventures and I'll blog about them soon. Until then, please don't abandon me!!!

Oh, and one small question. Just wondering where some of you get your pics that you add to your posts. Can you help a sister out? Thanks. You all are the best.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Answers to Your Questions

Ok, great questions! This is going to be fun for me...hope it is for you too.
Let’s start with a very vital question.

Is there McDonald's in Israel?
Yes. Where is there NOT a McDonald’s? Ok, maybe some remote rainforest village. We have only eaten there I think three times in the five months we have been here. Why eat McDonald’s when there is so much good Israeli food such as falafel!!

Have you found that you eat more fresh produce there?
Absolutely! For one thing, Israelis eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, even the children. Even when you go to a restaurant they serve a lot of vegetables in their dishes. Fruit is a whole different matter though. Israel does not import any fruits! They don't need to. I think that is really amazing. I’m not so sure about vegetables but I think most of what you buy here is grown here. And let me tell you, the fruit here tastes so much better than back home. I don’t know what it is but it is just better. Could it be that it’s grown in the Promised Land, the land of milk and honey? I think so. It’s what we like to call “prophetic fruit”.

How is ice cream viewed?
Ice cream is big over here. They have a lot of it in the grocery stores. They also have a lot of little ice cream shops all over. There is a lot of gelato too. Plus in the little kiosks they all have a separate freezer full of ice cream bars, pop-cycles, and little tiny containers of Haagen-Dazs that even include a tiny little spoon. Israelis love ice cream.

Does anyone speak English?
Yes. Most people speak at least a little English. The older generation not so much but the younger generation grew up learning English in school. You could live here and never learn Hebrew, but that would get old after a while and you would not be truly integrated into society.

What are the public restrooms like?
This depends on where you are. In nicer restaurants they are not too bad, usually pretty clean though not always stocked with toilet paper. However, let’s just say the seats are usually not so clean. I don’t do a lot of sitting. They don’t have them in most stores, even grocery stores because space is limited. However, if they do have them, I choose to go home. Enough said. There are a few public restrooms I know of in the Old City. They hardly ever have toilet paper but aren’t usually too dirty. I learned on my first trip to Israel to always have a roll of toilet paper on me, and hand sanitizer because there usually is not soap. Oh, and you hardly ever find paper towels.

What’s the weather like right now? Has it been how you expected it to be?
The weather this past week has actually been very stormy; cold, cloudy, rain, sleet, hail, very fast wind and snow in some parts of the country. But today the clouds are not so thick and the sun is shining a little more which is very nice. I originally did not bring my heavy winter coat because I really did not think I would need it. When my parents came to visit in the beginning of December they brought it over for me along with my scarf and mittens. Man, am I glad they did! I have needed those this week. However, on most days I just wear my lighter weight coat because most days are sunny and nice, chilly, but not cold. It’s more like having a really long Oklahoma fall with a few cold days here and there. I love it because fall and spring are my favorite seasons. However, I did not bring enough long sleeve shirts of sweaters because I’m a goof and thought “Well, it’s the Mediterranean. How cold could it get?” Lesson learned.

Now that you've been there for a few months, do you think you could give someone directions if you were asked? (Never mind a possible language barrier - this is assuming you understand them and they understand you.)
Sometimes. I have been able to do this on a few occasions but a lot of times people ask about small streets that I don’t know. I mostly stay on the beaten path and therefore don’t know a lot of back streets or neighborhood streets. I have been able to understand some people when the speak to me in Hebrew and this is really thrilling for me!

Is there country music?
Brent says, "Tell them yes. But which country are they talking about?" I have never heard American country music playing anywhere here.

Are there any movie theaters/video rental places?
Yes, both. Brent and I have been to see one movie since we have been here. It costs the same as back home. However, when you buy your ticket you get assigned seats. That was a little strange for us. There is also a really cool theater called Cinema City that we want to go to. They have what’s called the V.I.P. room. It costs about 120 shekels per person, which is about $30 per person which is a bit expensive, but listen to what you get. They have a buffet with all you can eat. I think it’s mostly what we would think of as finger foods but who doesn’t like finger foods. You can also drink whatever you want, pop, juice, beer, wine, champagne, etc. And you get to sit in comfy recliner type chairs! One of these days we are going to splurge and go indulge, when they have a good movie playing in the V.I.P. room.
They also have rental places here. There is even Blockbuster! We haven’t done this yet. I just borrow movies from my friend Kirsten.

Is it clean?
Well, sort of. I wouldn’t say it’s dirty. It’s not pristine. There is trash on the sidewalks some of the time and people sometimes don’t clean up after the dogs but it’s not filthy.

Where is your favorite place to sit and people watch, and why?
Really, and this is not a cop-out answer, I could sit anywhere here and people watch. I will say that one of the more interesting places to sit is on the beach or on the Tayelet (boardwalk). Of course this is more true in the summer time when more people are there. I love going to the Tel Aviv Port to people watch because there are a lot of families out and about and lots of children, adorable, beautiful children with gorgeous dark hair and eyes. It's also fun to sit in the sidewalk cafes and watch the people going by. There is such diversity here and that is interesting to see. They are also very social here. One of my favorite things to see is a group of "mature" men having coffee or lunch together. I think they are down right adorable. I always want to take their pictures but never do, I'm a little nervous they will think I'm some kind of weirdo. Maybe I am. Anyway, what was I talking about. Oh, people watching. There is always someone to see as there are always people out and about; families, groups of teenagers, mature adults and they are all fun to observe.

What surprised you about living there that was different from visiting?
Cooking!! When we visit we stay in hotels and kibutz and eat there. I didn't realize what a challenge it would be to cook. A lot of recipes I use are from Pampered Chef. These recipes call for pre-made ingredients such as canned biscuits or cresent rolls, canned soups and broth, Bisquick and large jars or cans of spaghetti sauce. They also use very American ingredients such as cheddar cheese or Velveeta. When we first got here and I tried to come up with things to cook I kept running into brick walls. I emailed my Mom and asked her to send me recipes from older cookbooks such as the big red Betty Crocker cookbook most Mom's have. Since then I have learned to be creative. I have even come up with some pretty good recipes. An Israeli friend gave me a good and simple recipe for spaghetti sauce when we first got here. After a few weeks Brent began to plead with me to not cook anymore pasta!! When you got a good thing going why do something different? Well, so I got brave. I started searching the FoodNetwork website and adapting the recipes to ingredients I knew I could find here. It's worked out well and know I'm cooking all kinds of stuff.

Thanks everyone for your questions. If you think of any more send them my way and I will answer them as we go. I'll also try to get some more pictures up soon. I've been cleaning the apartment today in between answering your fabulous questions, so that I can post pictures of it for you to see. Until then, blessings!