Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Soup/ratatouille

This is the soup/ratatouille I made last week. It's nice. Samantha and I shared this big pot and it lasted us over a week! 

Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas 2010

Roi and me on Christmas night before we went shopping for presents at BIG! He is wearing the sweater I bought him last March (finally) and he looked sooo handsome! 

My family at the Indiana Dunes beach on Christmas! You can see Chicago in the background! They all look wonderful, especially Jack! His first Christmas at the beach!!!!! I miss my family so much, but even more on holidays! 

Hadassah Optimal

I went to Hadassah Optimal while I was in Jerusalem because I want to have laser correction surgery on my eyes. After a lot of tests (which I had already done in the US) they told me I was eligible for the surgery. Then I listened to an hour speech about the procedure in Hebrew (and no, my Hebrew is not good enough to understand must of it.)

http://www.hadassahop.org.il/?CategoryID=759

It's still expensive and I would also have Wavefront and Lasik, not PRK. I am hoping to have it done in April after football season, because God forbid I got hit in the face with a ball.

Any suggestions? or opinions?

Some things never get old.


Me and my wonderful roommate Samantha at the kotel. This was Samantha's first visit and I was honored to share the experience with her!

Brazilians in my ulpan!

No matter how many times I have gone to the Western Wall, I still love it. I love praying there, I love watching the people, I love the emotions it provokes in me, I love thinking about my family, I love breathing there.

We went on the rampart walk, unbelievably, I had never done it before. It is mostly of the Armenian Quater, but the views are still lovely.
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Monday, December 13, 2010

Back to ulpan!

I had an entire week off from ulpan for the holiday. It was too much and I was too lazy. I reffed two football games, went to Akko, and relaxed with Roi in Beer Sheva. Although I got stuck there in a horrible sand storm and had to miss Sunday of ulpan! But today is back on schedule and I went to the gym and made ratatouille for dinner. Actually, I don't know if it was ratatouille, but it tasted great. I put carrot, onion, red pepper, potato, zucchini, and eggplant together in a big pot on the stove and boiled everything then added a huge can of tomatoes. I let the extra water boil off the top for a while. I added salt and pepper and paprika and dried red pepper. It's pretty awesome, I can't wait to eat leftovers tomorrow!

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Roi and me in Akko!!!

Roi studied really hard so he would have an extra day to come see me up north! We went to Akko. It was a beautiful day, not hot at all. We went into a mosque, ate humus, played backgammon, drank tea and ate baklava. It was a perfect day. =)

Mediterranean Sea

On the wall surrounding Akko

Port of Akko

Very seriously picking out baklava!
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Saturday, December 04, 2010

Tour Guide

I am applying to be a tour guide for NFTY in Israel this summer. Part of my interview is to write a two hour tour of a site.  Most of the tour guides are Israeli though, so most likely they have been to the places. I am writing about Rosh Pina (one of the first moshavs, farming communities in Israel), which I can only visited once, with NFTY, last summer. It is quite a difficult task for me, but I am trying my best.

Devastating fire in the Carmel near Haifa

Despite aid, Israel unable to check deadly wildfire
By Janine Zacharia
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 4, 2010; A06 


JERUSALEM - The worst fire in Israel's history showed little sign of abating Friday, and after two days the unchecked blaze had killed 42 people, consumed more than 7,000 acres and nipped at neighborhoods in the northern city of Haifa, Israel's third largest.
The fire had also destroyed a large chunk of the Carmel Forest, one of Israel's natural crown jewels and a popular tourist and vacation destination that is known as Little Switzerland because of its beauty.
By Friday, the flames had engulfed several kibbutzim and were racing down hills toward Israel's heavily traveled coastal highway. At least 15,000 residents were evacuated.
In a country as small as Israel, where territory is at the heart of political conflict, every inch of land is especially precious. Nevertheless, Israel has neglected to invest in the equipment and personnel needed to effectively combat wildfires that have become pervasive in recent years amid unseasonably high temperatures and periods of drought. In a country of 7 million, there are only 1,500 firefighters.
This winter has been one of the hottest and driest on record. Jerusalem rabbis this week held a special prayer for rain at Judaism's holiest site, the Western Wall.
Fires this year ravaged parts of the disputed Golan Heights and charred nature preserves on Jerusalem's outskirts. Israel used its entire 200-ton stock of fire-retarding chemicals to battle those outbreaks, so it had none on hand when the latest fire erupted.
The country boasts the region's most powerful military and is often among the first to send rescue teams to disasters abroad, but it could not handle this fire alone.
"Our firefighting measures cannot provide an answer to forest fires of this magnitude, especially in the face of such winds. We do not have such equipment,'' Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Friday.
The fire has sparked a rally of international support at a time when Israel has felt isolated diplomatically. Turkey, which has had a strained relationship with Israel since Israeli troops seized a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship in May, sent two planes. Britain, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Russia and Jordan also sent help. Turkey and Greece set aside their political differences and flew sorties together to douse the flames.
The evacuations in the north recalled the mass flight of Israelis south to escape Katyusha rocket fire from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah during a 2006 war. Acknowledgments by authorities Thursday night that they had no control of the fire raised questions about Israel's readiness to cope with another such barrage, analysts said.
After the 2006 war, a national inquiry found that Israel's fire services were underfunded and unprepared and recommended an investment in firefighting aircraft.
But even as Israel prepares to acquire hundreds of millions of dollars worth of advanced fighter jets, no budget has been allocated for the much cheaper aerial firefighters.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

First night of Hanukkah and chicken noodle soup!


I would make my mom, grandma, and great-grandma proud! I really did a number on this soup!

Also, Hanukkah in Israel is beatiful because there are candles in so many windows. It's really magical in a way. Although, it's still 80 degrees in the day, I feel like there should be just a little snow at least!
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