July 2004 Archives

So, just some random thoughts :-)

I love my job. Yay. Just thought I'd share.

I think I broke one of the washing machines. I put my backpack in it & I broke the water dispenser. It still works, but now it can move - not good. Oops. Not to worry - 'they' know about it.

Saturday we are hosting a BBQ for Mark's orientation group. It's been 9 months. He's calling it the "We've Been Here Long Enough to Have a Baby" party. Hmm... no idea where his mind is....

Okay, ciao - off to lunch! Today I get an hour and a half lunch instead of an hour - yippee!

For your comparison, this is me. See Violetta below.

Me, me, me, me, me. Not that I'm taking this personally or anything. For those of you who are wondering what this is all about, both my mother and my older brother saw pictures of my friend, Violetta and said that not only did she look like me, but that they thought she was me. I'm just helping them remember what I look like.

I called this one Model Mark for two reasons:

1. He was an exemplary model, patiently allowing me to shoot about 30 pictures of him to help me practice taking pictures for class.

2. This looks like such a model pose to me! I could totally see this going in some magazine or something. Not that the picture is that fabulous - just his pose.

I took this picture to show shallow depth of field. [it's of Mark ... or Mark's hand]

This is me. Not that it shows how Violetta and I are different. But I was asked to post more of the pictures I'd taken for my photography class.

This is what Violetta looks like. It's out of focus [yes, one of my photo class pics], but it's her. Not me :-)

For some, I suppose that will be thought-provoking - four years? already? wow, what a long time... For others, it's almost a laughable period of time. Four years? You still have no idea ... which is true, and I know it.

On the other hand, it is still four years, and if I managed to learn something in four years of college, I think I've learned a thing or two in four years of marriage.

Last Thursday was our anniversary. We took the day off, and travelled around Israel for the next three days.

First lesson: Israel is really, really small. And what with the temperments as they are, it's really, really, really small. We never drove more than an hour and a half to our destination, which is okay, spending all your time driving isn't necessarily fun either. The day trips were nice because we got a vacation without the hassle of the airports. Unlike Nathan's vacation, we feel like we really had a great, relaxing vacation. We went to a park that had converted natural pools into a water park (but still, much more nature, than 'park'). We went to an artist's colony (Sefat/Safed/Tsefat) north of the Galilee and had the best coffee I've ever had [that's saying a lot - I don't generally like coffee], we drove around the Galilee a bit (saw the Church of the Beatitudes, one of the loveliest (simple) churches I've ever seen), we visited Ziporri/Sephorris, a partially excavated Roman village - with an amazing aqueduct that we could go down and walk around in - breathtaking!! And then we'd go out and have yummy Asian food for dinner :-)

I simply couldn't resist this little boy! We were in one of our favorite cafes, Fresca, and this boy and his mother and sister were sitting next to us. We had ordered pizza, and when he saw our pizza he wanted some, too ... I think. He saw the pizza, started whining, I heard "pizza", and then about 15 minutes later they got a pizza, too... hmm. But this place has got to have the best pizza in Israel. It is amazingly delicious. Everyone we take to have pizza there raves about it. It doesn't hurt that they also have gelatto - which may very well mean they have the best ice cream in Israel as well.

Not to worry. That's what it means to the Sarha tribe in Chad. When a family abandons a child, the child will say "mara", which means "where will I go now?"

Sad, eh?

But then, who isn't in the process of asking that question?

Yes, you read that right.

I met John Leonard.

Who is John Leonard? Well, he happens to be the Knight of Baha'u'llah for the Falkland Islands, which, in brief, means he was the first Baha'i to have gone to the Falkland Islands.

I was born in the Falkland Islands.

Okay, so an explanation. I volunteered myself to teach a laundry class. I approached the Youth Committee after seeing one of the youth completely destroy a load of laundry by mixing a new tie-dyed dress (brown/green/yellow) with her towel, sheets, shirts, etc. Everything was brown & green. GROSS!!!

I know I'm no expert, but I do know how to wash my laundry and manage to not ruin most of my clothes. Many of the youth who arrive here either have never had to do their laundry, or they come from a place where a washing machine is a major luxury. I've had all sorts of responses here about it. Some people think it's absurd (all westerners), but most people think it's a great idea. As for the westerners, I used to regularly teach my fellow college students how to do laundry, so I don't know why they think this is such a universal thing.

Things are so, so, so busy and so, so, so exciting right now.

I am finally in a photo class. I can now pick up our camera without having spasms. I won't be able to attend all of the classes because of some of my other busy-ness, but this is very empowering for me.

Some consultants are coming soon for whom I will be translating (so is V :-)), and I am majorly excited (and nervous) about this. This is one of those occasions that in the outside world would be referred to as an opportunity for advancement in my field. I feel myself slowly making steps towards translation becoming a part of my life past my service at the World Centre. This is definitely a step in that direction.

A reflection of what I was doing a year ago. And a little bit about where I am today.

This time last year I had just decided to leave for Israel without Mark. He'd come later, once the house sold, which I naively assumed wouldn't take quite as long as it did. However, three months still wasn't as long as it could have been. I had 2 or 3 weeks to get ready to go. I decided that I'd pack up all our books, the kitchen, the basement, and all of my belongings before I went. Thereby facilitating the move for Mark (or so I thought, apparently there was still quite a bit of stuff left ...).

I think I'm experiencing blog overload. I've actually had experiences where instead of being "in" them, I was thinking about how I would describe it on my blog. That's weird. At least in my opinion. And I can't even remember what those thoughts were. Duh...

Another weird thing... my brother has a link on his blog to my friend's blog. Read that again MY FRIEND. Okay, not that I'm possessive or anything, but I don't even know HOW to put a link to somebody's blog on my blog ... or I would. Ah well, sigh. Maybe somebody will read this, realize how pitiful this is, and tell me how to do it, because I haven't figured it out. I also happen to hate computer manuals as a whole because they are so dry, so boring, and well, not in my language.