Highlights: Week 6

• Hanging out with my cousin Liran on Chanuka night 2 and sharing music websites - he's a DJ in one of the clubs in Tel Aviv - here's his site: immoral monkeys (he's the guy in the picture on the right)

• Entertaining people for the first time in my house. And cooking! It's awesome to have time to cook and experiment with new recipes!

• Walking along Tel Aviv sderot, these are wide boulevards similar to University Avenue in Toronto. They have an island for walking in the middle, but unlike University, this island is really wide (in some sderot, the island is even wider than the road for cars). They are amazing to walk along: they have bike lanes, lots of huge trees, benches (my biggest beef with Toronto is lack of benches. This is why! Benches are necessary for leisure time), mini playgrounds, monuments, sandwich shops and cafes. In my opinion, sderot are one of the best features of Tel Aviv. I think that they truly raise the quality of life here... some photos:





























• Playing lots of samba :-) :-) :-)

Moments: Week 6

Wed. Dec. 24
I smoked hash from a potato tonight! That's right my friends... I had a hash potato! Leave it to the Israelis to invent this method of smoking hash, and they say that smoking from a carrot is even better... who knew! I tell ya' they gots a lot of time to waste in the desert. I couldn't take a picture, so I drew a model :-)
As most of you know, I don't usually smoke this stuff, but how could I resist a hash potato :-)
Anyway, it's been another great night of pagode with the Brisraelis! We said goodbye to our singer, he's going to Europe tomorrow. We lit the 4th Chanukah candle at the bar and sang a Chanukah song in Samba. Life is real good today!

Week 6: Chanukah

Sunday Dec. 21
This week is Chanukah and this is the first time since we left Israel that I'm here during Chanukah. For the lighting of the first candle on Sunday Dec. 21, I had Laura, Orit, Rafi, Micha, Mickey, Ruthie and Elad over at my place for dinner. I went to the shuk early that day and bought fresh food. I decided to experiment with the spice Safron, it's quite the production, this spice! You get a tiny amount of threads for 30 sheqels (approx $10), but it comes in a beautiful little box that seems more suitable for diamonds than a spice. Nonetheless, I enjoyed cooking with it. For appetizers we had fresh chumus, pitas, olives and marinated mini-eggplants that my cousin Pnina made. I made my famouse lentil soup, which I learned from my mom, with a slight modification to the spices. I also made stuffed zucchinis with dried apricot. Pnina taught me how to make these yesterday and they were a huge hit! The crew said that they were the best zucchinis they've ever tasted, so I will definitely be making those again... yes mom, next time we're together for shabat dinner. For the main course I made couscous with safron and vegetable stew with poached chicken. The chicken was fantastic, and everyone seemed to like the stew, but I wasn't a big fan, so I won't be making the stew again. I tell ya, I don't know how I was able to prepare all of that in a kitchen with 2 hot plates and a toaster oven, but hey anything is possible ;-) For dessert, we had sufganiyot and coffee/tea. What are sufganiyot you say? Well this is a treat that is only served during Chanuka. They are like jelly donuts with powdered sugar on top. However, the dough tastes nothing like North American donuts, it's much tastier. Here is a clip of us lighting the first candle:


For the second candle, I went to my cousins Pnina and Itzik's. My aunt and uncle Batia and Fishel were also there and we had a really nice dinner and Itzik explained to me that the candles must be set up starting from right to left side of the Chanukiya (symbolizing moving towards one's heart) and the new candle is the first one to be lit (as that's the candle that is being blessed)... good to know!


For the third candle, I went to my cousins Menachem and Dalia's sister's house, it was raining hard that day, so there was pandemonium on the roads, so we were a bit late. I don't remember ever meeting Dalia's family, but her father remembers me as a child. They were all really nice people, and their 15 year old son plays guitar, so he played Metallica's Fade to Black for me, and the solo in Hotel California, right on! He is pretty good.
After dinner, I went to my samba rehearsal, but this time we were practicing with some scouts for a gig we have on Saturday. They were really good on their own, but when they had to join us while we played Samba Reggae, it was a disaster, I don't think they could find the one. We'll see how the gig goes.

For the fourth candle, I was invited to hang out with the pagode trio, they were having people over to also celebrate xmas eve. We went to Andre's place, he's the guitar/percussion player, Daniel is also guitar/percussion and Nilson is the singer. They made feijoada and we drank cachaca, it was great. At 9pm we went over to play the gig at the usual bar Mazal Ariye (Zodiac Sign of Leo). We also lit the candles at the bar, which was really cool. Nilson got to light the candles because it's his last night playing with us. He's going to Europe to try getting more work there. We played our hearts out 'til 2am, this was a great night! Here are a couple of videos:




and here are some more photos... the guy with the long hair is Andre, the guy with the glasses and beard is Daniel and Nilson is the guy with the hat. Oh, and the band has a website so you can check it out, Sambadobom.



























For the fifth candle, Micha had a party at his place. His mom made food and it was good vibes all around.

For the sixth candle, I stayed at home in bed, 'cause I had some serious stomach issues, I must have eaten something off. But I heard that I missed a good samba party, damn, oh well next time.

For the seventh candle, I was at Gadi's house for his birthday party. Gadi is a guy we met at the pagode bar. He is a bassoon player in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, so he had all his fellow musician friends at his place and we jammed all night. He had notes for some great bossa nova tunes and these guys played this stuff like it was nothing, and there were some really complicated lines. We had a trumpet, upright bass, 2 flute players, Daniel on accoustic guitar, Andre on pandeiro, me on rebola, and a bunch of other people on random percussion instruments. It was fantastic. We're going to try to get some of these guys to join us at the bar Mazal Ariye on Fridays. That would be so amazing.
Oh yeah, earlier that day (Saturday Dec. 27), I had a gig with the Batucada group (Samba Guarana) with the scouts, it went well, it was very low key mainly for the community. But the gig was in Yafo and as you probably heard there was a big attack on Gaza that day, so the event was cut short. Yafo has a big arab population , so on my way back, I had to take another route home as there were a bunch of demonstrations on the main street. I kinda wanted to go and see the demonstrations, but I was told it's not wise for safety reasons. So I took their advice.
Side note: I know this is really strange for most of you reading this blog, but please don't worry too much, I'm pretty safe in Tel Aviv, it's not that close to Gaza or the West Bank and most of the retalliations happen in the cities closer to the borders. Besides, I usually travel by foot or taxi and I will stay away from any compromising situations. Thank you to all of you that are checking up on me :-)

Highlights: Week 5

• Even in the old city of Jerusalem, one can find a Capoeira group!

• a 300 year old olive tree



















• My fingers nails are growing in quite nicely - I'm not playing as much, so my hands are recovering

Moments: Week 5

To the Movies:
I went to see the Coen brothers movie Burn After Reading on Wednesday Dec. 17, with Laura, Sefi and Sam. Great film by the way. But I don't think Israelis get the North American dry sense of humour because Laura, Sam and I were the only ones in the theatre laughing throughout the movie. I think it's a cultural difference

Moti:
Moti told us about the anti semitism he had experienced daily in Latvia and how proud and happy he was to come to Israel. He told us that his late wife, Mila, wanted to move to the US at one point and he said to her that there was no where in the world that they would ever feel at home like they do in Israel. This is where they belonged as Jews.
Moti shared a story about his experience in February 1972 on an electric bus, one week before they left Riga for Israel. He said the bus was packed and people were bumping into each other, but one guy was pushing him in a way that was obviously on purpose. So, Moti, knowing that he was leaving the country in one week, decided he was going to get off the bus a stop early to avoid a confrontation. He got off the bus and the man got off at the same stop, followed him and tapped Moti on his shoulder and said, "why do you Jews always have to hang around the rest of us like leaches?" Moti, shocked, as he had never been confronted by a stranger like this before, took a step back and mustard up all the energy inside of him and threw a big punch at the man. The man fell back and Moti ran away and escaped.

Quiet!
Laura and I were walking on the street one evening and there was a dog barking non-stop from one of the apartments, all of a sudden a man shouted from another apartment across the street QUIET! And the dog stopped barking. It was hilarious!

Week 5: Jerusalem

Saturday Dec. 20, 2008

I woke up early today because my aunt and cousins Batia, Itzik and Pnina were taking me to Jerusalem. They picked me up at 9:30am and we drove to one of the oldest cities in the world. On our way we stopped for breakfast at an all chumus place. This is a middle-eastern phenomenon... there are these places that only serve chumus. Now we're not talking no Summer Fresh Hummus in a box. No, no, my friends, these places serve the best home made chumus you can dream of. And they take their chumus quite seriously. Chumus is no side dish or dip, oh no! Chumus is your main course served warm in a bowl. The falafel, salad, poached eggs, pita, and onion... those are your side dishes. You eat the chumus with a spoon, you don't even need the pita. Now what about the onion you ask? well, believe it or not, you use a layer of fresh onion to dip into the chumus... as my friend Rafi would put it, onion is the new pita!
After chumus, we went to another little shop that my cousin Itzik knows well and picked out some fresh home made treats for later - apple and date filled pastries and some other turkish sweets.
We finally got to Jerusalem and the moment we arrived, I instantly felt that I was in a really special place. You can't not feel this way here, it surrounds you as you walk on 2000 year old pavements, listening to church bells, the muezzin call for prayer, watching the religious kids rushing to synagogue, and seeing other people just going about their business. For those of you who have never been to Jerusalem, I strongly recommend that if there is one city you must visit in your lifetime, this is it!
The government passed a law in 1971, that all structures built in Jerusalem shall be build from Jerusalem stone, so the entire city has a very unique character.
It's Saturday today so all the Jewish shops are closed and only the Arabic shops are open. We walked around the old city and Itzik gave me the coles notes version of some of the events that took place here. We walked by buildings from the Turkish era, through the Armenian quarter, and a street remaining from the Roman empire. It was fascinating.

We walked through the shuk and shopped in some really cool shops. This shuk is quite different from the one in Tel Aviv. It's much bigger, much older and there's a lot more stuff! Itzik spoke in Arabic to the shop owners and got us really good deals on random stuff.



























Above is a beautiful cafe in the shuk.

Once we got through the shuk, we reached the Kotel (western/wailing wall). This is considered one of the holiest places for Judaism because the first 7 layers of the wall are the remains of the 2nd Temple built by Herod the Great in 19BCE, the next 4 layers were added in the 7th century, the next 14 layers are from the Ottoman period in 1866 and the top 3 layers were added before 1967.


There were tons of people there praying. I stood in front of the Kotel, put my hand on the 3000 year old wall and had a moment to myself. I did what most people do when they go to the Kotel and wrote my prayer on a small piece of paper and put it inside a crack in the wall.
















On our way out of Jerusalem, we stopped at a camp site to have a coffee with the lovely treats we bought early that morning and enjoyed the incredible view of Jerusalem. This was an awesome day. I got to spend really nice quality time with my family and I felt really satisfied.

Week 5: Haifa

Thursday Dec. 18, 2008

I went to Haifa today to visit my family. I took the train from Tel Aviv to Central Haifa. Mara and Aaron picked me up and we went to see Moti who is my 2nd cousin or something like that... let's see, Moti's late wife Mila, was my mom's cousin, so that makes me their ?? anyone? Anyway, Moti is a doctor and he lives in a beautiful villa in one of the more affluent areas in Haifa called Danya.
Moti's wife, Mila passed away only a couple of months ago on October 9th, 2008, so he is still very much grieving. Nonetheless, he was a great host. He even had a blended highland scotch on the table for us. After a few drinks he started telling me stories about his late wife and our family. He began by asking if I could guess who were the two women that he admired most in his life (and his mother was not one of them). I couldn't guess, and he said, my great aunt Tzila and my grandmother Sara (my mother's mom). He said they were the purest of souls that he had ever met. They were completely selfless, always helping everyone around them and did only good for others. He then began to tell us stories about our family. He recited one that I got on video, but it's in Russian, and it doesn't translate well to English, so I will put it up for all my Russian readers. The jist of the story is that in Riga, Latvia, my grandmother, Sara Spector, was shopping for chicken in the market and was approached by a man who seemed pleasant but had made a subtle anti-semitic comment to her. She went home and told the story to her family and it didn't even occur to her what this man had meant, as she always saw the best in people.


I get the sense that I'm here to learn about my roots, to help me understand better where it is that I come from. As I listen to stories being told about my own family, my father and now my grandmother, I feel so proud to have been influenced by such great people. These are two people (in addition to my mom) who have had a huge impact on who I am today. My grandmother passed away when I was 6 years old, but I remember spending a lot of time with her. She was my caregiver as both my parents worked. I remember her house clearly. I remember running around barefoot near her house in Hadera and getting my first bee sting on my big toe. I remember the small round woven pillows on her couch with a 70's yellow, orange and brown circular pattern. I remember her small and very warm dark brown eyes. I remember the moment when I learned that she had passed away - I was in daycare, I saw my mom come in and talk to my teacher, and I could see that something was wrong and then she left. I distinctly remember holding and looking at a card with a picture of a lion. The teacher took me aside and tried to explain what happens to people when they are done living and I remember not wanting to take my eyes off of the lion.

When I'm gone, if people talk about me in the same way they talk about my father and grandmother, I will have lived a rich and successful life!

This trip is becoming very much my journey back to my roots, I didn't realize how deep these roots were. I thought 22 years away is a long time and maybe I wouldn't feel as connected, but there were lifetimes before me that contributed to who I am today. My family here looks at me and sees a continuation of a lineage which automatically connects me to them. They remember me as a little girl and I too am a chapter in their life story.

Sam asked me the other day, where did I get this desire to help others as I do in my work, and today, I'm thinking that my grandmother could have been my first role model.


Friday Dec. 19, 2008

Today, Mara took me to the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa. The Baha'i faith is the newest of the world religions and Acre and Haifa are the spiritual centres. The Baha'i believe that there is only one God, one human race and that all the world's religions have been progressive stages in the revelation of God's will and purpose for humanity. They have some pretty cool principles, laws and institutions for a world civilization:
- Abandonment of all forms of prejudice ... that's right
- Full equality between the sexes... can you imagine?
- Recognition of the common source and essential oneness of the world's great religions... that's crazy talk!
- Elimination of the extremes of poverty and wealth... slow down now
- Universal compulsory education... huh?
- Right and responsibility of each person to search independently for truth... hello!
- Establishment of a world religion federal system... way too progressive
- Recognition that faith must be consistent with reason and that science and religion should be in harmony... who are these people?

Can you imagine, if everyone believed in the Baha'i faith... we'd have nothing to create wars about and then how could we possibly have corruption, poverty, bombs, two-tier systems... a lot of people would be out of work. These baha'i believers have obviously not thought this through!
Just kidding of course :-) This place was really incredible, it's set on the hillsides of Haifa looking down at the city and sea, just stunning. Here are some photos





























I got back to Tel Aviv on a mini bus. The cool thing about public transportation here is that the drivers are actually human! They have their set central stops but they don't mind dropping you off anywhere on their way, just ask. So virtually everyone got dropped off at a different spot. But they speed like crazy!

I was invited tonight to join the pagode trio again, I went and it was a blast!

Highlights: Week 4

• Sunday Dec 7, 2008 Tel Aviv Sunny 22C, Toronto Snow -12C
• Heavy heavy rains - this guy is the artist who makes really cool clocks (I bought two), he was hiding in his booth as the rain came down, and peaked out for the photo, he was very funny.


• Hanging out with my cousing Chen






















• Someone else cleaning up my dirty laundry
• I discovered an exercise room at the beach, how convenient

Moments: Week 4

1) Sam at the cafe: I had a wonderful conversation today (Tues. Dec. 9) with my new friend Sam, who I met last week at the cafe near my house. He's a film producer/camera man from US who was born in Israel, but has been living abroad for over 30 years and now he's back for the first time to live here. He's such an interesting man, who's experienced so much in his life through his work in film & tv. We connected right away and today on my way home from shopping, I saw him in the cafe again and had a nice long chat about life, happiness and those precious moments in life when one truly feels happiness. It got quite deep and philosophical, which was a nice interlude from the day to day chit chat. It was great. I love when I meet people who can talk about real stuff. I've made a new friend! and he also happens to be extremely well connected in the film & tv world. He knows a famous anchor woman on CBC who he offered to link me up with, if I have a compelling story relating to my work with Drum Artz. Who knows, these things sometimes come together in unexpected ways. You never know... you just never know.
Nonetheless, we were meant to meet each other, that I am sure of, even if only for today's great chat and his help with the scanner :-)

Here's a photo that Sam took of the Tel Aviv harbour...

Week 4: Finding My Groove

Sunday Dec. 7th, 2008

Today, I discovered laundry service in Israel. I couldn't find a coin laundromat, but I found a laundry shop where they do your laundry, fold your clothes and pickup/deliver them to your house. And it's not much more expensive than doing it yourself. I mean, what more could I ask for!!
Oh, and I found the neighbourhood seamstress shop (it's the size of a closet - see pic below) who can hem my pants.

Perfect, the seamstress will be tomorrow's day trip along with the hunt for a print/copy place. Nobody seems to know where I can print documents around here.

I should also mention that Sundays in Israel are equivalent to Mondays everywhere else in the world. See, Sunday is Day 1 of creation, God began working on creating the world on Sunday, so this is why Israelis start their work week on Sundays. For me, it's kinda weird 'cause I work on Toronto time, which is another reason why I'm so much more productive here, it really feels like I need to be working on Sundays... everyone else is doing it.

It's also neat to be in a place that revolves around my holidays. Every Friday afternoon, the city pretty much shuts down. Most people either work a half day on Friday or not at all. This leaves me plenty of time to get to, or prepare for shabat dinner with my family or friends. It's really nice, actually. Friday really feels like a special day here. Most shops, restaurants and public transportation close by 4pm and don't reopen until sun down on Saturday. So there's definitely a special vibe on the streets. This is also the first time in a while that I've had 1 free day a week to relax. So this is what it's like to be normal! I like, very much. I declare Saturday my day of rest, I shall not do work on Saturdays!

Tuesday December 9, 2008

My mission today is to find a scanner (I finally found a place where I could print stuff, yesterday) and to buy a gift for my cousin's brita (that's like a bris - circumcision - but for a girl.. and nothing gets cut off, so essentially it's a party welcoming the new born into the world). So I went to Nachlat Binyamin - this is the artists' market, which is right next to the shuk.. perfect 'cause I can pick up my favourite bread and chumus on my way home. Anyway, the artists' market is really cool, it's kind of like the one of a kind show in Toronto, but it happens every Tuesday and Friday. Artists set up booths with their work, from jewelry to photography to costumes to pottery to kaleidoscopes.


















I bought some great stuff for gifts and found one booth that was setup especially for me, I'm sure of it. It was an artist who creates these cool cubes made of different wooden shapes that form into various designs. So the artist had a few out to try and so I sat down and began my first task which was to build a pyramid.

Needless to say, I was there with two other geeks for two hours having a blast figuring out how to build different shapes.
The girl on the left was trying to cheat by stealing my pieces...

















It started to rain, but the three nerds persisted on. It was great! Finally, the vendor was closing shop, 'cause nobody likes to work around here when it rains, I bought the master game and continued on with my day. I found a cafe, had some lunch and planned on doing some work, but then it started raining really hard. Everyone ran inside, but I stayed out under the restaurant's awning as it seemed that my spot was the only dry one. I was soon joined by another man who was also escaping the rain. He sat down and treated me to a cup of coffee and a great conversation while we watched the chaos that ensued around us from the terrential rains.

He was Dutch living here for 15 years working on his 3rd career as a photographer. Interesting fellow.

When the rain stopped we said goodbye and I continued to my favourite place, the shuk. I went back to pick up my favourite bread - a thinly sliced multi-grain dark rye bread with a hint of what I think is cumin... delicious, and of course the homemade chumus, some more persimmons and other fruit & vegetables, said hello to the owner of the dead sea products booth, heard the same joke about my earring from the fruit stand man and got a nice smile and hello from the olives man. My first time at the shuk, the olives man seemed like a very mean and angry man, but today I learned that it's just his tough exterior front. That's good, because his olives are the bomb!
I walked home from the shuk and bumped into my new friend Sam at the cafe near my house. He invited me for a coffee and we had a great chat. At this point, I completely forgot about my scanning mission and it turned out that Sam has a scanner at home and so he scanned my document and emailed it to me. I tell ya' the people upstairs were watching over me today.
Missions accomplished. Another productive day!
Oh, but Samba was canceled, due to rain. Damn it!

Wed. Dec 10, 2008

I left my map of Tel Aviv at my cousin's house, so I attempted to get around without it. Well... that was not working, let me tell ya, the streets in this city wind and turn in every which direction, I still can't find my bearings here. She's bringing the map back to me today, phew!
I am at the beach today doing some work.

It's a bit chili, but so beautiful and calm. Not many people are here and only the surfers are in the water. I was thinking today that it's so refreshing to live near a beach. On my walk here from my house, I saw the water in the distance and I immediately felt such excitement come over me and I just couldn't wait to get close to the water. I can't find the words for how I feel when I'm near this sea. I put my feet in the water today, it was still warm, which is so nice. And let's face it, there's no better food to have on the beach than chumus, tachina and pita, so I indulged... again :-)

The sun is coming down and it's spectacular.







That's not a photo of me, but she's nice...






Friday Dec 12, 2008

Another eventful day, wow! I went to my cousin's brita and saw lots of my family and friends from childhood, some who I was seeing for the first time in years. There's quite a few of us, which is so refreshing, 'cause I don't have much family in Canada. It was really nice to see that everyone is still very close. The brita was on a farm about an hour from Tel Aviv. The drive there was stunning, so many brilliant colours in the landscape - pinks, purples, yellows and oranges, I was just in awe. The celebrations were very informal, which is common to most Israeli functions. It was outdoors near a beautiful farm house, the food was served in buffet style with different bbq meats and vegetables, delicious breads, spreads, salads, rice, potatoes and of course chumus & tahina. Really good food... generally the food in Israel has been fantastic!

My cousin's husband's brother was there and he came over to my table, sat next to me, and began telling me stories about my father. He had known my father since they were 26 years old, back in Lithuania. When he first saw me today, he knew immediately that I was my father's daughter, he is the first person to tell me that I bare some resemblance to him. He told me that my father was an extraordinary man who could make things happen like no one he had ever met before. He said that he was a man with no fear. Always so full of life, and truly one of a kind. The man had tears in his eyes when he spoke of my father and he brought tears to mine. I could feel the love he felt for my dad and how much he missed him. It made me realize that my family has a very long history in this country that I know very little about. There are so many people here that know my parents very intimately and have so many stories to share. I would really like to hear them.
..... I really miss my dad today.

I got home and remembered that my Samba pimp, Tomer, told me about a pagode group that was playing at the Yafo (city of Jaffa) harbour tonight, so I decided to go, besides I could really use the walk, as it was an emotional afternoon for me. It's a pretty long walk to the Yafo harbour from my house, but it's absolutely stunning. I walked through the shuk which was really odd, as it was closing down and there was no one there except for vendors closing shop, and the street was filled with garbage, scrap food and cardboard boxes, it was really gross! All the vendors toss their leftovers and garbage on the street and a tractor comes through and sweeps it all away. I continued to the shore and walked along the boardwalk to Yafo, which was such a beautiful walk. I tell ya, this country is blessed with some stunning scenery. The water still continues to take my breath away each time I'm near it. It was dark and all one could see were the waves and rocks. As I got closer to Yafo, I could here the Islamic call to prayer in the background. Wow! really powerful, you can't help but feel how sacred it is. The architecture in Yafo is also really different. The port looks like an old brick castle made of white stone. You get a strong sense of an old city. I finally reached my destination which was on the veranda of a beautiful white stone building on the harbour. I watched the pagode group play their first set. They were a trio - singer, cavaquinho/guitar, and pandeiro. They were all very good (especially the singer) and they sounded like real Brasilians. They also had a tamborim, triangle, shaker and rebolo there, but they only played the rebolo (bass drum) on one song, I guess they didn't have enough players. I really felt the rebolo missing in the music, I mean, it is pagode, afterall. They played really great songs, a lot of older Brasilian music, Chico Buarque (my favourite), forro, frevo, etc. On their first break, I approached the singer and it turns out that they are all from Sao Paulo, and they all moved to Israel just over a year ago. I told him that I played and he invited me to join them. He introduced me to the other two band members and I played rebolo for the next two sets with them. It was so great for me, I got the release that I needed. The crowd was dancing and singing along and the vibe was really good. When we were done, they invited me to join them every friday and on any other gigs that they have booked. Yay!!! That really made my day.

Hey Matt... I met my first real Brisraelis!!! Another mission accomplished :-)

Highlights: Week 3

• Saturday morning breakfast at Bar Gyora (near Laura's house) - tuna salad, israeli salad, some other salad, cream cheese, grilled eggplant, two eggs (sunnyside up), pickles, and gorgeous bread. Yes! I finished it all.
• Dogs are allowed in cafes - and everyone owns a small dog
• Discovering real Brizraelis! (Brazilian-Israelis)
• Laura & Micha's party -


We went out to a bar one night and met this guy with crazy hair (that's Laura beside him) and invited him to Laura & Micha's party, because every good party needs a guy with an afro, don't you think? But he didn't show. Oh Well, it was still a great party.








• Hanging out at Micha's place

• Seeing my good friend Shachar and his family

Moments: Week 3

1) I was walking down some side streets on the way to Laura's house and I looked around at the neighbourhood and apartment buildings and I got this wonderful nostalgic feeling. I recognized the building style from my childhood, I grew up in a neighbourhood that looked very similar to this one. Israeli apartment buildings have particular features that I've only ever seen here. It was really comforting that I could still feel connected to this place despite living elsewhere for so many years.

2) One of my neighbours is a piano player, so I often get my own little piano concert when I work at home, which is very nice, I like! It reminds me that I should start playing piano again, except for the scales, which remind me why I stopped playing piano.

Week 3: My New Pad

Today is Laura's birthday and my moving day - Dec 1st. I woke up, decorated her place with balloons and streamers, bought her flowers and chocolate croissants - her favourite, and took a taxi with all my bags to my new place, 10 min away. The taxis charge you and extra 5 sheqels if you order them by phone, and an extra 6 sheqels for bringing luggage into the car, so weird. Doesn't make any sense! A bag weighs and takes up less space than a human, but they don't charge extra for every person that comes into the car. And the driver doesn't even help you load the bags into the car, so they're not working extra, I just don't get it. Anyway, I got to my new apartment and spent the day setting up my stuff, cleaning and went shopping at Shuk Ha Carmel (pronounced shook - means market) - the biggest and most well known shuk in Israel, also the location of one of the suicide bombings a few years ago - don't worry, but it's true! Let me tell you about the shuk... well... this is my second time shopping there and it is quite the experience.
















It's located in the heart of Tel Aviv where 3 main streets converge (above left photo) and you walk down a long wide aisle (above right photo is the entrance to the shuk) where on both sides there are vendors setup carrying everything you can think of; t-shirts, plates, skin products, fresh bread, fruit, vegetables, spices, meats and fish but most of all there are tons of people. If you're afraid of crowds, this is not the place for you, but for me this is heaven on the streets! I just love the chaos. The most exciting part about being in the shuk is the vendor owners screaming out the low prices of peppers and avocados, buy this, buy that, an old lady yelling 2 for 1 bread, and then there's always some vendor who's just screaming random shit that makes no sense, I don't even think it's in Hebrew. And of course, there's the fruit stand man that tells me the same joke every time I walk by "Excuse me, do you always walk around with one earring?" He got me the first time, but not the second time around, no sirry bob! I was on to him. I love it, what a thrill! Today I bought 360 sheqels' worth of spices and grains (approx $120), yup that's a lot of spices, but I'm gonna cook some mean meals, you can be sure of that!!

I spent a lot of this week in and around my apartment and neighbourhood. I scored big time with this place. It's just amazing! Clean, renovated, fully furnished, with a comfortable bed and good setup.
This is my landlord signing the lease...














I have a small kitchen but totally manageable with enough working space, no real stove, but I have 2 hot plates and a toaster oven which is great. I've got a nice and clean bathroom and lots of closet space.


















And the biggest perk is my big balcony which looks out to some nice trees and it has a huge bean bag that one could sleep on. I like working and entertaining on the balcony.



My neighbourhood is near Rothschild and Sheinkin (the closest intersection), which is a really beautiful and trendy area with boutiques, cafes, restaurants and parks everywhere. I'm close to everything, yet it's a pretty quiet apartment as it's tucked away on a small side street. Of course, there's a falafel place just around the corner and pretty much anything else that I might need. The shuk is a 10 min walk from my place. The beach, 20 minutes. Well done Gili! Well done!

This week, I started settling into a routine with work, you know the whole wake up in the morning and go to work thing that most people are in to these days. I discovered that being 7 hours ahead of Toronto was actually quite useful for me and my coworkers back home. You see, they send me work by 5pm Toronto time and I get it done by 9am Toronto time, it's just fantastic. Clarity doesn't even offer that kind of service to their clients. And the best part is that while I work during the day, the rest of you are sleeping, so no body bothers me with phone calls and emails. It's just brilliant! I'm finding that I'm actually a lot more productive here... hmmm, I think I'm on to something...

Skype is another amazing discovery I made in Israel. Ok, this is the best thing that ever happened to long distance communication! For those of you who haven't yet jumped on the skype bandwagon, here's a link. JUMP ON! It's fucken fantastic, as my good friend Rick would say. I've had several work meetings on skype, we can talk, we can see each other, it's like I'm there, but not really. I talk to my family and friends more than I did at home, gosh maybe it's better for everyone if I just stay here ;-)

I discovered a Samba group that rehearses weekly. On Tuesday Dec. 2, I went to my first samba rehearsal. Not bad at all, actually. The group is called Samba Guarana and has been playing together for three years. There are approx. 10-15 players. I'd say, for three short years, they sound very good - the tams can ride pretty well which was impressive and the caixas are solid - they use the same pattern as Samba Squad's regular 2 bar caixa pattern (I think #1). They have some similar breaks too with slightly different interpretations. I was playing surdo, since they had an extra one. Each player has to bring their own drums, they don't provide any drums for the players. We are so pampered in Samba Squad ;-) I had a great time playing and I'm just so glad that I found a samba outlet here too. Oh and I also found my very own "Tel Aviv Samba pimp", Tomer, who will be keeping me up-to-date on all Brasilian related events in the city. Excellent!

On Thursday Dec 4, my friends from Toronto (who are in Tel Aviv), Laura and Micha threw a big birthday bash at Laura's house. I designed their facebook evite picture.


Some of you have heard about Micha's legendary house parties, for those of you who haven't, Micha takes the house party idea to "the next level" as he would put it.
We had a crew of people for setup, cleanup, decor, music, food and drinks.
There were as many people in that house as you would see in a club. The booze were flowing freely, the music was pumping and the energy was high.











It was great! Fun was had by all.

You've done it again Micha. Great success!