April 2004 Archives

That's not a directive, just that right now I am travelling outside of Israel.

And it feels so good.

We didn't have the greatest flight from Tel-Aviv to Frankfurt (some of the most self-absorbed, bratty, catty women I have ever met were sitting in front of us), but then, who does have good flights? From Frankfurt to Edinburgh we flew with the 2004 Brandenburg Women's Soccer (sorry, 'football') team - that was pretty cool to see. (a lot of blond women!)

I keep going to other people's blogs and wondering why they haven't written in them lately... hmm... so I guess I better update mine!

In Israel, Memorial Day and Independence Day fall on consecutive days, and they just occurred. They were supposed to be on Sunday and Monday, but because Sunday is the day after sabbath/shabat ... they made them Monday and Tuesday. I don't quite understand that, but then I haven't exactly asked anyone about it either (see title of blog entry!). Anyway, that meant that the first holiday started on Sunday after sunset, which randomly coincided with me and Mark having no desire to cook or eat the food in our house ... the ONE day we want to order a pizza and nothing is open, hahahahaha! Back to spaghetti!

We did have front row seats (our great location and wonderful windows out to the bay) for a spectacular fireworks display, though. Since we're in the middle of the mountain, it was perfect. Of course, we'd closed the blinds and were watching a movie (Miller's Crossing - a Coens brother 'gangster' movie - plenty of similar sounds coming from the movie...).

Okay, so I haven't gotten mum and dad's aproval, but isn't she absolutely adorable? She is the daughter of my good friend (we were college roommates). Daddy's a good friend, too :-) I put her picture up as the background of my computer and everyone - everyone - who walked by stopped and commented on this adorable sweetie. So, since she has made a definite contribution to the happiness of my day, I thought I'd share. Here's to Sadie :-)

The wall of our apartment which faces the the street is made up entirely of windows. Our dining table is situated so that if we wish, we can sit at it and look out the window at the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains across the bay.

However, there is also a several story home (perhaps apartment building) in our view. The family whose doorway is directly opposite us got a puppy this past Christmas. I'm pretty sure it was Christmas because they had a pine tree draped in colored lights in their house - I'm pretty sure they don't do that for Hanukkah.

I've had bad nights before. We all have, right?

Few nights, however, are so bad that ... well, I'll let you judge for yourself.

There was a lot of carnage last Thursday evening. Now remember this was the beginning of my weekend. And it was supposed to be a pretty good start at that. The French Speakers' Group had organized a talk with one of the members of the International Teaching Center, Joany Lincoln - a very cool woman, in my humble opinion. She and her family lived a number of years in French-speaking Africa before she was appointed to the International Teaching Centre here in Israel. She recently spent two weeks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is one of those French-speaking African countries (formerly Zaire). And the plan was for her to talk about her trip.