crib notes #1

I have decided that, yes, I will start learning Italian in earnest. Italy is a worthy country in which to vacation, and would hopefully be the country of choice specifically for our family's vacationing purposes. I would still not want to live there as an ordinary resident. People there are too relaxed for me.

First time in Germany. It's like a future utopia/dreamland. I met some students studying from China at the Universtat Bielefeld, where I am right now. It must be like dying and going to heaven, living standard-wise. It's so difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that this beautiful country with such an impressive culture of environmental-loving, strong work ethics, excellence and efficiency in seemingly everything they do and have could have such a dark history in the not-so-distant past.

Also, Chomsky is wrong to say that anti-Semitism as we understood it no longer exists. Maybe not in the US, but several incidents during my current travels in Europe due simply to my connection to Israel have made me painfully aware of this.

Too busy taking care of the children every day to write more for now. Hopefully I'll be able to reflect more in writing later.

third b-day

I feel like I kind of failed today at celebrating Declan's third birthday. It's certainly a lot more low-key than his first birthday, which was a huge party in China with trivia games and the Chinese traditional task to determine Declan's aptitude. I made a slideshow with music and everything. Then, on his second birthday, I cooked for three hours to host a dinner party in the midst of rockets firing back and forth between Gaza and Israel. Our friends checked on the latest siren status in Tel Aviv while waiting for another friend who's scheduled to arrive by train from there, and the neighbors dropped by mid-dinner to give us our key to the bomb shelter.

Declan's third birthday consisted of his usual going into the Technion with Daniel. Being expats, we're a little out of the loop on the usual gan birthday traditions that I kind of enacted with Declan's Hebrew mommy-and-me group last year. Father and son came home an hour earlier than usual in order to catch an hour or so of playing with our friend Helen's four kids at their apartment. Then Declan chose a really crappy-tasting cake from a convenience store on the way home, and we shared it with our neighbors who also have a boy around Declan's age. I don't think anyone took pictures.

I did, earlier in the day, go to Merkaz Horev and bought a bunch of things that Declan might be interested in. I was on the fence about them being birthday presents or part of a travel kit for our flight to Europe, then purely out of feeling tired and angry about something and not through a logical process, decided that it's a travel kit. I've never been a very craft-y person, and so rarely got Declan anything much to play and make believe with outside of open-ended containers. Now that he's officially three years old, maybe I'll try harder to provide opportunities for making art. The travel kit could be a good start.

And Declan wasn't completely sans birthday present. Instead of an English-tiled Bananagrams I finally found, which would have cost 109 shekels i.e. three times the price Amazon charges, I got Declan and Joshua (Helen's youngest son, who'll be turning three also but next week) each a riding stick with horse head. They had fun galloping around indoors and then fighting over the dark-colored horse versus the caramel-colored one at parting time.

So, pretty uneventful third birthday for Declan. Lazy ima.

Right after I took this picture, Declan yelled, "No!" and ran away

this weekend was a good one

Hanging out with Mark, who caught the train up from Tel Aviv, and Daniel bringing home some shepherd's pie he'd ordered from The Duke as part of dinner with Mark while I stayed home to watch over the sleeping baby...

Debating past midnight regarding social issues, like in university and grad school...

Efficiently completing the usual Friday run to the organic shuk, supermarket, and pharmacy (plus the post office this time), even though it did make us 50 minutes late for the free live concert by the Oy Division down at the Turkish Market. By the time we got there, the band was just wrapping up their last song. But I ended up supporting a local artisan and got two headbands for myself and a birthday gift for Sarah...

Discovering that coffee tastes fantastic with the addition of sweetened condensed milk...

Agreeing to Daniel's suggestion of driving the car to Kehilat HaCarmel and actually having a really satisfying visit to the Messianic congregation. I think it's because I went in the spirit of just wondering if God will be there and not expecting much of anybody including myself. The baby fell asleep towards the tail end of the song worship portion, so I got to listen to the interesting sermon without any distractions. Declan had fun playing with Anna's kids and I got to catch up a little bit with her as well. Daniel and I also discovered the craftsmanship of Kerem Creations, which is a really neat endeavor...

Making a quick lunch out of pasta dressed with an improvised sauce composed of avocado, garlic, dill, cilantro, green onion, tuna, and olive oil in the food processor, with lemon, sesame oil, salt, and pepper to taste...

Taking a nice late afternoon walk down Moriyah Street with Declan in the Ergo and Petra in the Beco...

Seeing a (live!) sheep overlooking traffic from a third floor mirpeset / a W.C. sign with the stick figure person barfing into an abstract toilet / a Chinaman statue made of china and a 1700s-style clock in the window display of an antique shop / a real ticket to a June 1942 concert of the Palestine Orchestra in Haifa as part of the table decor at Cafe Brussels / Recognizing the Hebrew for Cafe Brussels, which was hosting a secondhand clothing sale...

Paying five shekels for a perfect summer skirt and twelve shekels for a one-shoulder clingy black dressy shirt, plus being gifted with a free random sheet of Chinese character tattoos...

Playing in the dusk and eventual darkness at the small play area on the route halfway home, with Petra cackling every time she saw her brother and Declan yelling happily, "Again!" after he held Petra in his lap and Daniel helped them both slide safely down from the one play set...

Reading several stories with Declan after making a vegetable curry eaten over coconut rice for dinner...

And now I'm staying up way too late and it looks to be a busy week starting tomorrow until we leave for Italy next weekend, so I best be heading to bed. Daniel thinks my major illness this past week might be polio (since Israel stepped up an OPV campaign after detecting the virus in the water supply this past summer). If so, I better get more sleep.