I knew I could cook, but for some reason, cooking a Thanksgiving meal, with all the shopping for ingredients, the day before prep and expectation of guests, is a different beast. I did it...in a foreign country! I'm a little proud of myself. :) Granted, I had to ask my parents how for their recipes for everything, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? I didn't have a whole turkey. Apparently, you have to order it in advance here. I had, as weird as it sounds, turkey parts. I think a thigh and a breast. I made gravy, which started out disastrous, but turned out really well. I also had green bean casserole, for which I had to make my own fried onions and cream of mushroom soup. Neither exist here. Well, the soup came in a powder form, but I had to guess how to make it because I couldn't understand the directions without looking up every word. I also made sweet potatoes- changed some stuff from my mom's recipe and made them my own. :) The cranberry sauce had to come from a can, because you can't get fresh cranberries here, but it was still good. Ali got a loaf of bread and I also made a salad, which was so pretty and colorful. Dad even noticed when I showed the family around my dinner on Skype. My guests brought the dessert and wine. Ali and her cousin Geneve were here and my camp friends Lauren and Adam were, too. Adam baked amazing peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and Lauren brought rugela (a delicious, Jewish dessert) from a famous bakery in J-town.
I graduated college 2 1/2 years ago and have been living on my own, with a "real world" job/ in a new country, but sitting and eating this successful Thanksgiving meal that I made myself far away from home finally made me feel like an adult.
My camera is broken, but Lauren took pictures, so when I get them from her, I'll post them here.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Flush beats a Straight
I need to start making it a habit of writing my blogs when I get back from Ulpan on Sunday nights. My brain is fried by then, so I’m not going to be doing homework anyway. Ok, so last week’s recap:
Wednesday, the 14th, one of the girls in the 2nd year of the program (cohort 10) was having a birthday party at a nearby bar. I stopped by for a bit. There turned out to be a lot of TASPers there, even though we all had to work the next day. I came home at midnight, though, so I could get a full 5 hours of sleep. Woo! Oh, and Israel is becoming more like many places in the States. You can no longer smoke in a bar or place that serves food. So exciting!!!
Thursday, though I was tired, I went to the gym before going home to nap. That made 4 gym visits for the week. The most consistent I’ve been since I got here! After my nap, I joined some people from cohort 10, Mark (graduated, from cohort 9) and some of their friends for some Texas Hold ‘Em with a 60 shekel ($15) buy-in. It was my first time to play and let’s just say I did not have beginner’s luck. I was nervous and folded a lot. I could have won some hands I gave up on too early. I did walk away with money for a load of laundry (not drying), though. I’ll practice my poker face before I go back. I’m sure it’ll look a lot like my ‘I’m trying to be serious even though you are being hilarious’ teacher face. Afterward, Mark and I met up with Nili (cohort 10) for a beer- on Mark, who won more than me!
Friday, I cooked enchiladas for Shabbat dinner. In addition to Allie and Ali, Ali’s friend Aviel and Mark came. This dinner was really for Mark to repay him for the dinner he made the folks staying in the hostel the first few weeks we lived here. It was good, got rave reviews, but tasted more American than Mexican. I think it was because I had to use flour tortillas instead of corn. I never thought it would make that big of a difference, though I don’t think anyone else was able to tell. If you’re wondering what to send me…
Mark and I wanted to go out, but the rest of the group did not. We tried to go to Cerveza to get some affordable American beer, but it was way too crowded. We went to a restaurant called Hashdera 34. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but it has really good food with big portions and both the food and drinks are really cheap. We sat at the bar and had a few beers. This Asian woman, sitting next to Mark, started a conversation with us, in English. She worked there, but her shift was over and she didn’t want to leave. She wasn’t Jewish, just loved the country and has been here for 7 years. She made us a drink on the house and kept telling us to come back, especially on the weekends when she worked. She even asked for my number, I guess so she could let me know when she’d be there. Interesting...
Saturday, Allie, Ali and I actually went out on a school night again, though this time it was university-school. Geneve, Ali’s cousin, and her roommates were having a party at their new apartment. Lots of new Israelis to meet, fun times, left at midnight to get enough sleep to survive the class-filled day to come.
Normally, I don’t write about Sundays. I’m in class all day and there’s not really anything interesting to say. However, this Sunday, something so exciting happened, I was speechless for a moment. I saw my friend, Idan, on campus! Idan lives in J-town and has been commuting to school while he was looking for and finalizing an apartment (he moves in tomorrow!). Our class schedules kind of overlap, so we hadn’t gotten to meet up yet. Now what is so special about Idan, you ask? If it weren’t for him, I would not be here. (I’m sure some of you are reading this and not liking him very much. I miss you, too!) He was the one that told me, at camp- summer 06, about MASA and showed me all the different programs in the organization. When I found TASP, he’s the one that pushed me to do it now & not put it off for a few more years, when I would be “too old,” as he put it, “Who knows what will be going on in your life then. Do it now before it’s too late and you can’t do it.”
Enough back-story, here’s how I was struck speechless: I was walking towards the stairs during the hour between classes and there are a few people walking toward me. It wasn’t until they were almost past me that one didn’t just look familiar, I knew him! Here’s where my brain stopped functioning. I just grabbed his arm and when he spun around, all I could muster was, “I know you!” After the initial shock of randomly being grabbed, he gave me a big hug and I found my voice. He was in the building early, hanging out with a friend. I can’t believe we’ve had a class this close to each other all this time and didn’t know it! I’m going to hang out with him tomorrow. Yea!!!!
Winter has officially started. We always joke that Texas doesn’t have seasons, but compared to Tel Aviv, we do! Fall was 2 weeks of weather that dropped down to 70-80 degrees. Then one day, it started raining. Some days it only rains once, for a few hours, other days, it’s an on/off all day event. With the rain, came the cold. Granted it’s mainly the opinion of a winter-hating Texan, but the Israelis are wearing jackets and winter clothes, too. Being a wet cold doesn’t help either. My feet were wet for most of the day today because of the large, deep, 97% unavoidable puddle outside the bomb shelter/my room at school. Thoughts of fire places, hot chocolate and blankets are dancing through my head…
Oh yeah, and in Hebrew, Carly literally me ‘it’s cold to me’ or ‘I’m cold.’ I forsee hours of winter fun. : \
Wednesday, the 14th, one of the girls in the 2nd year of the program (cohort 10) was having a birthday party at a nearby bar. I stopped by for a bit. There turned out to be a lot of TASPers there, even though we all had to work the next day. I came home at midnight, though, so I could get a full 5 hours of sleep. Woo! Oh, and Israel is becoming more like many places in the States. You can no longer smoke in a bar or place that serves food. So exciting!!!
Thursday, though I was tired, I went to the gym before going home to nap. That made 4 gym visits for the week. The most consistent I’ve been since I got here! After my nap, I joined some people from cohort 10, Mark (graduated, from cohort 9) and some of their friends for some Texas Hold ‘Em with a 60 shekel ($15) buy-in. It was my first time to play and let’s just say I did not have beginner’s luck. I was nervous and folded a lot. I could have won some hands I gave up on too early. I did walk away with money for a load of laundry (not drying), though. I’ll practice my poker face before I go back. I’m sure it’ll look a lot like my ‘I’m trying to be serious even though you are being hilarious’ teacher face. Afterward, Mark and I met up with Nili (cohort 10) for a beer- on Mark, who won more than me!
Friday, I cooked enchiladas for Shabbat dinner. In addition to Allie and Ali, Ali’s friend Aviel and Mark came. This dinner was really for Mark to repay him for the dinner he made the folks staying in the hostel the first few weeks we lived here. It was good, got rave reviews, but tasted more American than Mexican. I think it was because I had to use flour tortillas instead of corn. I never thought it would make that big of a difference, though I don’t think anyone else was able to tell. If you’re wondering what to send me…
Mark and I wanted to go out, but the rest of the group did not. We tried to go to Cerveza to get some affordable American beer, but it was way too crowded. We went to a restaurant called Hashdera 34. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before, but it has really good food with big portions and both the food and drinks are really cheap. We sat at the bar and had a few beers. This Asian woman, sitting next to Mark, started a conversation with us, in English. She worked there, but her shift was over and she didn’t want to leave. She wasn’t Jewish, just loved the country and has been here for 7 years. She made us a drink on the house and kept telling us to come back, especially on the weekends when she worked. She even asked for my number, I guess so she could let me know when she’d be there. Interesting...
Saturday, Allie, Ali and I actually went out on a school night again, though this time it was university-school. Geneve, Ali’s cousin, and her roommates were having a party at their new apartment. Lots of new Israelis to meet, fun times, left at midnight to get enough sleep to survive the class-filled day to come.
Normally, I don’t write about Sundays. I’m in class all day and there’s not really anything interesting to say. However, this Sunday, something so exciting happened, I was speechless for a moment. I saw my friend, Idan, on campus! Idan lives in J-town and has been commuting to school while he was looking for and finalizing an apartment (he moves in tomorrow!). Our class schedules kind of overlap, so we hadn’t gotten to meet up yet. Now what is so special about Idan, you ask? If it weren’t for him, I would not be here. (I’m sure some of you are reading this and not liking him very much. I miss you, too!) He was the one that told me, at camp- summer 06, about MASA and showed me all the different programs in the organization. When I found TASP, he’s the one that pushed me to do it now & not put it off for a few more years, when I would be “too old,” as he put it, “Who knows what will be going on in your life then. Do it now before it’s too late and you can’t do it.”
Enough back-story, here’s how I was struck speechless: I was walking towards the stairs during the hour between classes and there are a few people walking toward me. It wasn’t until they were almost past me that one didn’t just look familiar, I knew him! Here’s where my brain stopped functioning. I just grabbed his arm and when he spun around, all I could muster was, “I know you!” After the initial shock of randomly being grabbed, he gave me a big hug and I found my voice. He was in the building early, hanging out with a friend. I can’t believe we’ve had a class this close to each other all this time and didn’t know it! I’m going to hang out with him tomorrow. Yea!!!!
Winter has officially started. We always joke that Texas doesn’t have seasons, but compared to Tel Aviv, we do! Fall was 2 weeks of weather that dropped down to 70-80 degrees. Then one day, it started raining. Some days it only rains once, for a few hours, other days, it’s an on/off all day event. With the rain, came the cold. Granted it’s mainly the opinion of a winter-hating Texan, but the Israelis are wearing jackets and winter clothes, too. Being a wet cold doesn’t help either. My feet were wet for most of the day today because of the large, deep, 97% unavoidable puddle outside the bomb shelter/my room at school. Thoughts of fire places, hot chocolate and blankets are dancing through my head…
Oh yeah, and in Hebrew, Carly literally me ‘it’s cold to me’ or ‘I’m cold.’ I forsee hours of winter fun. : \
Thursday, November 8, 2007
mmm...chocolate
The concert in J-town was a lot of fun. Our program's block of seats was in the first 2 rows! We discovered that all the other programs are way more excited to be a part of MASA (the blanket organization that hosts all they programs). Apparently, MASA even has a song. We were unaware of it, but everytime it came on before the show, they went crazy- jumping and singing it at the top of their lungs. At first we attributed their behavior to their age. Since we're one of the only graduate programs, everyone else is most likely between their senior year of high school and their senior year of college. However, I know people this old and though they have the ability to go crazy over certain things (as do I), they would refrain from acting like fools for something like this. When the show started, some of these people thought it would be a good idea to start mosh pits and crowd surf with the 3 rows of people between the stage and the first row of seats. Maybe I'm being too judgmental, but I had to prevent too many of them from falling to refrain. Know your surroundings, people and be appropriate. (I heard my Dad's voice as I typed that!) Anyway, the songs were all in Hebrew, but I recognized a few from hearing them at camp. The music had a great beat and was very upbeat and energetic, so it didn't matter if I couldn't understand the words!
Afterward, most TASPers headed back to TA. I met up with Meir and a few of his friends at a restaurant/bar. They spoke in Hebrew and I actually followed the conversation and participated (though in English) at times. Meir was very impressed (as was I) because they changed topics a lot. I stayed at his place (AKA: his parent's apt) and in the morning, we made (or he made and I tasted) a fruit salad and we took it and yogurt on a breakfast picnic in the forest near his place.
Up the hill from us was where the soldier and cemetery and important person cemetery is (think: Yizhak Rabin and Theodore Herzl). We went walking through it afterwards, which is not so weird as it seems. It is really pretty and is more like a park with lots of memorials in it. There was a new one for the Ethiopian Jews that died on their way to Israel.
I was planning on leaving after that because it was Friday and the buses stop running around 3 pm, but Meir had to babysit his nieces and nephew and asked if I wanted to stay. Hmm, let's think..yes. His nephew (1.5 yrs) was asleep when we got there and the girls (about 4 and 6 yrs) were at school. We went to pick them up later and all went over to Meir's parents place to play. Luckily, kids' Hebrew is elementary enough to follow and smiles and gestures go a long way. The 4 yr old, even cuddled up with me on the couch and almost fell asleep at one point...and she made me a picture!
When they left, Meir and I met up with his friends (some I had met and some I hadn't) at the top of a mountain above the Sataf Spring just outside J-town.
Everyone brought different snacks and someone had a little camping cooking flame thing to make Turkish coffee. Some of the people had just gotten back from traveling and this was their first time to all be together in about a year, so there was a lot of Hebrew, but again, I was able to follow and once they caught up with each other, they switched to English more often. 
I had to leave after that because I didn't have clothes to stay for Shabbat and another night, so pockets full of treat from his mom, I caught a sherut back to TA.
Saturday night, there was a peace rally in honor of Yithak Rabin. He was killed on Nov. 4th, but they usually have the rally on a Saturday around the date, so more people can come out. There were 150,00 people there!!! In between the speeches, singers would perform. It was hard to understand the gist of everything being said, and it was almost 2 hours long, but the crowd was worth it. Seeing middle school and high school kids there on their own accord was pretty powerful, but then I was blown away seeing groups of them holding balloons and wearing shirts in support of one of the political parties (There are literally a countless amount here.) blew me away. Where else would you see something like that? These flags (there were also shirts) say: Shalom Achshav- "Peace Now"
This banner says: Olmert (the Prime Minister) the time has come to choose. Pretty powerful.
Sunday, after Ulpan, I went with Allie and her sister, Sara, who was in town for the weekend from Prague, to Max Brenner. It's an Israeli restaurant but there are locations all over the world, including one in NYC. It's not a normal restaurant though. They have a limited food menu. Everything else is chocolate in some form. I got a dark hot chocolate to drink and the 3 of us split the 'sharing dish', which had a little of everything, including fondue and a crepe, and a chocolate pizza.
Luckily, I hadn't eaten dinner. Allie and Sara were much more stuffed than I was!
And that was my weekend. Then I had a normal school and work week and now we're back to the weekend. :)
Afterward, most TASPers headed back to TA. I met up with Meir and a few of his friends at a restaurant/bar. They spoke in Hebrew and I actually followed the conversation and participated (though in English) at times. Meir was very impressed (as was I) because they changed topics a lot. I stayed at his place (AKA: his parent's apt) and in the morning, we made (or he made and I tasted) a fruit salad and we took it and yogurt on a breakfast picnic in the forest near his place.
Up the hill from us was where the soldier and cemetery and important person cemetery is (think: Yizhak Rabin and Theodore Herzl). We went walking through it afterwards, which is not so weird as it seems. It is really pretty and is more like a park with lots of memorials in it. There was a new one for the Ethiopian Jews that died on their way to Israel.
I was planning on leaving after that because it was Friday and the buses stop running around 3 pm, but Meir had to babysit his nieces and nephew and asked if I wanted to stay. Hmm, let's think..yes. His nephew (1.5 yrs) was asleep when we got there and the girls (about 4 and 6 yrs) were at school. We went to pick them up later and all went over to Meir's parents place to play. Luckily, kids' Hebrew is elementary enough to follow and smiles and gestures go a long way. The 4 yr old, even cuddled up with me on the couch and almost fell asleep at one point...and she made me a picture!
When they left, Meir and I met up with his friends (some I had met and some I hadn't) at the top of a mountain above the Sataf Spring just outside J-town.
Everyone brought different snacks and someone had a little camping cooking flame thing to make Turkish coffee. Some of the people had just gotten back from traveling and this was their first time to all be together in about a year, so there was a lot of Hebrew, but again, I was able to follow and once they caught up with each other, they switched to English more often. 
I had to leave after that because I didn't have clothes to stay for Shabbat and another night, so pockets full of treat from his mom, I caught a sherut back to TA. Saturday night, there was a peace rally in honor of Yithak Rabin. He was killed on Nov. 4th, but they usually have the rally on a Saturday around the date, so more people can come out. There were 150,00 people there!!! In between the speeches, singers would perform. It was hard to understand the gist of everything being said, and it was almost 2 hours long, but the crowd was worth it. Seeing middle school and high school kids there on their own accord was pretty powerful, but then I was blown away seeing groups of them holding balloons and wearing shirts in support of one of the political parties (There are literally a countless amount here.) blew me away. Where else would you see something like that? These flags (there were also shirts) say: Shalom Achshav- "Peace Now"
This banner says: Olmert (the Prime Minister) the time has come to choose. Pretty powerful.
Sunday, after Ulpan, I went with Allie and her sister, Sara, who was in town for the weekend from Prague, to Max Brenner. It's an Israeli restaurant but there are locations all over the world, including one in NYC. It's not a normal restaurant though. They have a limited food menu. Everything else is chocolate in some form. I got a dark hot chocolate to drink and the 3 of us split the 'sharing dish', which had a little of everything, including fondue and a crepe, and a chocolate pizza.
Luckily, I hadn't eaten dinner. Allie and Sara were much more stuffed than I was!And that was my weekend. Then I had a normal school and work week and now we're back to the weekend. :)
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