The Great Outdoors

Do you like camping? Living abroad, I miss Shenandoah National Park where we used to camp with our friends. However, we've had some good experiences here in Israel, including last weekend. What is your favorite part of camping? Mine is waking up the next morning bundled up in a sleeping bag and feeling so refreshed and relaxed (and looking forward to the campfire coffee!).

We picked up some fresh ground Arabic coffee with hel (a spicy cardamom mixture added to coffee) in Nazareth on our way to the campsite and my spouse made it in our copper Turkish kettle.

Last weekend we also biked in the "soldier ride" with some visiting wounded veterans as part of the wounded warrior project. I don't usually interact with a lot of veterans, so it was a unique and meaningful opportunity.

Let's Catch Up!

We've got some catching up to do!

This first picture was taken a few weekends ago during a promotional sailing lesson. If you live on the East Coast of America, you wouldn't believe how nice the weather still is in Israel. Although we loved the lesson and were inspired by the skipper's "Do you have a dream of sailing to Greece?" pitch, we need more time to think about it before we commit the time and money for certification lessons.

Last week a friend from A-100 came for a visit, which was a great excuse to go out to our favorite restaurants and try some new ones. We loved showing her our city and hearing about her experiences at her post. Here we are with a group of friends at a winery in the Judean hills.

I know you're dying to hear what we were for Halloween this year! We decided to go as the characters from the movie Drive. David's jacket turned out great, and I wore a blonde wig to be Carey Mulligan. Unfortunately, no one here had seen the movie.

Lastly, we ran another 10K. Remember the Nike Night Run we ran last year? I wasn't as sore or tired after the race this year--which either means I ran slower or I am in better shape. I'm going with the latter option and setting my sights higher: Half marathon anyone?

On Blogging and Modern Communication

I enjoy blogging so much more than Facebook or other forms of modern communication. I know I don't update my own blog nearly enough, but I enjoy checking up on the blogs I follow--my friends, family, and even some strangers whom I have come to regard as friends. Blogs are like a secret window into someone's life, and a well crafted blog is thought-provoking and engaging, like a good novel. I'll admit, there is a degree of voyeurism and hyper-reality to the culture--many people write about this or that outfit, makeup, interior decorating, crafting, or party planning--but behind all of that is a narrative arc that to me is completely sincere. I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way, but explaining it to someone who is not familiar with the culture is very difficult.

My book club just read the book The Most Human Human by Brian Christian. I highly recommend it! It is all about the author's endeavor to win the most "Human Human" award in the Turing Test: A test where a judge will chat for five minutes with a human "confederate" and an AI chatbot and afterwards guess which is which. The most "Human Human" award goes to the confederate who was able to convince the most judges that he was a human. The book got all of us thinking about what it means to be human when computers and AI are becoming increasingly complex.

I brought up my blogging "hobby" and one of my friends jokingly (but a little not) asked how I know the people who write these blogs are who they say they are. "I know a Nigerian prince who could use some money..." she teased. She has a point, and I was horrified and enthralled by the documentary Catfish (Watch it! I won't give away anything here). It would be very difficult for a chatbot to maintain a sophisticated blog... but a very bored human could exaggerate the details of his or her life or fabricate something entirely. But I've never mistrusted the blogging community...at least not the ones that I read.

What do you think? Do you have a similar relationship to the blogs you read? Have you ever doubted an author's sincerity? Do I live in a gullible la la land?

New Year and More

We've recently passed several milestones of the Jewish Calendar. For Rosh HaShana (Jewish New Year) my husband and I visited our old stomping grounds: Vienna, Austria. We took advantage of the direct flight and the fact that we had two days off work. Vienna is my favorite city in Europe. Forget Paris or Berlin...Vienna is the place to be. My husband and I studied abroad there and lived there after graduating college. This time when we visited, it felt like we had never left--and we almost didn't want to! Below you will see (1) the "exotischer salat" at the Nashmarkt, complete with the new wine called Sturm, (2) the Hapsburg Palace Shoenbrunn, and (3) the Vienna woods.

For Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of Atonement) all the streets were closed to traffic and we rode our bikes on the highway to a neighboring town. It was a good workout and an eerie experience. The next day we just relaxed in our apartment because everything is closed.

Celebrating two New Years gives me two chances to renew my resolutions. This year I still would like to learn how to make bread (so far I have made banana bread, honey bread, naan, biscuits, scones, and pizza dough) and I would like to start waking up earlier, reading the newspaper, and walking to work while listening to a podcast or book on tape. We'll see how long that lasts.

Last, but certainly not least, a blogger friend of mine, Kate Miss, recently found out some bad news about her boyfriend. You can read about it here and/or support them by purchasing some of her rad prints as a fundraiser. I have been very shaken by the fact that they are so young, but I also know that young people are resourceful and generous. Please consider buying a print for a good cause.

Thanks everyone and Shana Tova vMetuka (have a good and sweet new year)!

There may be other creatures, but...

Today I was disappointed to learn that Guinea Pigs do not actually come from Guinea.

The above picture is from Sandros on Wikipedia

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Next Stop: Conakry, Guinea

So, we found out where we will be going next: Conakry, Guinea (the kelly green country between Mali and Sierra Leone--not to be confused with Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, or Papua New Guinea)! Call me crazy, but we bid it high and I'm excited about the job, learning French, and serving in West Africa. It seems strange to be thinking that far into the future. I'm sure as it gets closer to the date, the reality of it will sink in. It is definitely going to be a drastic change from Tel Aviv, and we know that. Be prepared for the content of the blog to change drastically as well--but not for another year and a half!

Send me a note if you have ever been to Guinea or have any tips on West Africa in general.

Bisous!

Thousands Rally in Tel Aviv

I was exchanging e-mails with a friend and realized that he did not know anything about the peaceful protests going on in Israel. Apparently this has not yet hit the international media in a big way. So for those of you who are not familiar, I wanted to post a few pictures and observations. As everything on my blog, what I write reflects my own personal opinion and in now way reflects official policy.

There is a protest going on in Israel right now. People old and young, religious and secular--though I might add mostly middle class--have come together to demand "social justice." Rothschild Boulevard, a posh Tel Aviv street, has become a speakers corner of sorts for groups demanding lower cost of living (particularly rent). You can also find subgroups demanding rights for Arab Israelis, equal educational opportunities for secular and religious Jews, no dairy subsidies (the dairy farmers are against this), vegetarianism, freeing Hamas' captive Gilad Shalit, and lower cost of living in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This Saturday night, 300,000 Israelis poured into the streets for a protest March. See the first photo above (credit: AP/Oded Balilty). The rest of the photos and the video are mine.