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!