There is a song from last years So You Think You Can Dance.
When something ends Something begins,
But now it's just the end of the road
When someone loses someone wins
But now it's just the end of the road
Don't get to fix it if it doesn't break
But now it's just the end of the road
When you gotta leave
It makes you wanna stay
I know it's the end of the road
We are heading home in the morning. Our time here in Israel is over. We are on the road to a new adventure.
Our time here has been interesting. Very challenging at times. We didn't get to do half of what we wanted, but there is always next time. I have learned a lot about the culture here, about the family dynamics. And lots of new Arabic!
Lena actually cried when we said we were coming home. She is so excited about seeing her friends again. And so am I.
I am going to miss things like the incredible food, the fresh fresh fruit, the interesting driving techniques... The people are all very friendly and always welcome you with open arms, and lots of food.
Now, it's time to start our new lives in Canada.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
The Wedding
The major event around here that we were all waiting for is finally over. THE wedding. After weeks and weeks of stressing over the dresses that were being made at the dressmakers, the parties, the food, the Marhaba, Salam Alakhom... We survived.
Friday Khalood and Alaa were heading to Caesarea to have their pictures done. They get totally done up in their wedding atire, hair make up the full 9 yards. We followed them around the beachfront snaping our own pictures. I got some incredible shots of the sunset, a statue that was quite well endowed and a few overgrown well fed cats (honestly, they all weigh between 20-30lbs and are about 2x the size of a normal house cat).
Saturday was a flurry of things to do. The girls all had appointments at the hairstylist at 1pm. This is a HUGE business here. There were 3 wedding parties going on while we were there. They had one girl blow drying the hair straight, one doing make up and then they would take turns putting the hair up. Lena was first up. We were both so excited! Even though I am an ex hairstylist, Lena has never had her hair "done" before. They were a little baffled by her hair texture, as it's more American than Arab. One girl blew dry her hair straight, then she went to another chair and got makeup, and hair done in record time. She was beaming!
The wedding began at 6pm. There was a major shortage of cars to get us all to the wedding. It was only down the road and around the corner, but the way they drive here, I can't let my guard down for a minute. In one car alone, they had in the front seat, the driver, two adults, holding a one year old, and 5 people in the back. Jay got extreemly upset at everyone who kept insisting that we don't need to buckle Lena in, just have her sit on our lap. So everyone went to the wedding and Abid returned after dropping off his mom and sister and gave us a lift.
The wedding was incredible. The building from the outside didn't look like much, but the inside was fabulous.
There was lots of good food, dancing, crying, laughing and picture taking. I alone took over 250 pictures at the wedding. The wedding ended at 11:30pm, but the partying continued here at the house until about 2am. I was in bed asleep by 1am.
Friday Khalood and Alaa were heading to Caesarea to have their pictures done. They get totally done up in their wedding atire, hair make up the full 9 yards. We followed them around the beachfront snaping our own pictures. I got some incredible shots of the sunset, a statue that was quite well endowed and a few overgrown well fed cats (honestly, they all weigh between 20-30lbs and are about 2x the size of a normal house cat).
Saturday was a flurry of things to do. The girls all had appointments at the hairstylist at 1pm. This is a HUGE business here. There were 3 wedding parties going on while we were there. They had one girl blow drying the hair straight, one doing make up and then they would take turns putting the hair up. Lena was first up. We were both so excited! Even though I am an ex hairstylist, Lena has never had her hair "done" before. They were a little baffled by her hair texture, as it's more American than Arab. One girl blew dry her hair straight, then she went to another chair and got makeup, and hair done in record time. She was beaming!
The wedding began at 6pm. There was a major shortage of cars to get us all to the wedding. It was only down the road and around the corner, but the way they drive here, I can't let my guard down for a minute. In one car alone, they had in the front seat, the driver, two adults, holding a one year old, and 5 people in the back. Jay got extreemly upset at everyone who kept insisting that we don't need to buckle Lena in, just have her sit on our lap. So everyone went to the wedding and Abid returned after dropping off his mom and sister and gave us a lift.
The wedding was incredible. The building from the outside didn't look like much, but the inside was fabulous.
There was lots of good food, dancing, crying, laughing and picture taking. I alone took over 250 pictures at the wedding. The wedding ended at 11:30pm, but the partying continued here at the house until about 2am. I was in bed asleep by 1am.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Lizards, snakes and cows oh my!
Ok, so it's been a while. It's past midnight and I can't sleep.
About a week and a half ago we went to a Kibbutz and visited the dairy farm. Coolest thing I have seen in a long time. Not sure how many hows they had, but several hundred. They hang out in open pens, that have a self manure cleaning thingy, that can tell when it's full of shit. lol Sorry I had to do it. It sweeps it all out so the cows don't stand around in it. They spray water with a fan and it totally keeps the flies down. So when the cow decides it's time to be milked, yes, the cow, it walks down a pathway to a holding pen. It stands in line with all the other cows. While it waits, it gets a nice shower. Then when there is an opening, a door opens, the cow steps in and off it goes! The milking area is like a merry go round for cows. They come in one door, get hooked up to the automatic milker, go around the circle, get detached and exit. Then a new cow enters! They play music which apparently soothes the cows. Down the ramp they go. But they don't go straight back to the pen. They get in line to be scrubbed by the auto scrubber! Darnedest thing! They take turns, walk up to this large round brush, lift it with their heads, which activates it, and the walk back and forth letting it scrub in just the right spots. When it's done a new one goes up and does the same thing! So then they walk along a new pathway to a different holding pen. There is no one telling them to go, no one telling them when it's time to be milked. It's all up to them!
Maybe happy cows don't live in California but in Israel!
With the cooler weather all sort of creatures have come out of hiding. Not only nasty looking bugs, like the dead (thank you God) huge cockroach that was on the veranda, or the huge spider that the cat thankfully ate for us. But Lizards and snakes. We have no idea where the snakes are coming from. Fortunately for us, they are babies. But that means there is a mom somewhere close by. The first one was discovered inside. Promptly had it's head cut off and tossed into the yard by our resident teen-aged adventurist Maher. aka Lena's boyfriend. Then the other day after Lena discovered a cool lizard down stairs, good lizard, Jay and Lena were walking down the front steps when a baby snake dropped from who knows where to their feet! We could not find said baby snake and I have been living in fear of accidental coming upon it with my bare feet. I have since discovered about 6 new bug bites just from today... oy today, I'll leave that for another time.
About a week and a half ago we went to a Kibbutz and visited the dairy farm. Coolest thing I have seen in a long time. Not sure how many hows they had, but several hundred. They hang out in open pens, that have a self manure cleaning thingy, that can tell when it's full of shit. lol Sorry I had to do it. It sweeps it all out so the cows don't stand around in it. They spray water with a fan and it totally keeps the flies down. So when the cow decides it's time to be milked, yes, the cow, it walks down a pathway to a holding pen. It stands in line with all the other cows. While it waits, it gets a nice shower. Then when there is an opening, a door opens, the cow steps in and off it goes! The milking area is like a merry go round for cows. They come in one door, get hooked up to the automatic milker, go around the circle, get detached and exit. Then a new cow enters! They play music which apparently soothes the cows. Down the ramp they go. But they don't go straight back to the pen. They get in line to be scrubbed by the auto scrubber! Darnedest thing! They take turns, walk up to this large round brush, lift it with their heads, which activates it, and the walk back and forth letting it scrub in just the right spots. When it's done a new one goes up and does the same thing! So then they walk along a new pathway to a different holding pen. There is no one telling them to go, no one telling them when it's time to be milked. It's all up to them!
Maybe happy cows don't live in California but in Israel!
With the cooler weather all sort of creatures have come out of hiding. Not only nasty looking bugs, like the dead (thank you God) huge cockroach that was on the veranda, or the huge spider that the cat thankfully ate for us. But Lizards and snakes. We have no idea where the snakes are coming from. Fortunately for us, they are babies. But that means there is a mom somewhere close by. The first one was discovered inside. Promptly had it's head cut off and tossed into the yard by our resident teen-aged adventurist Maher. aka Lena's boyfriend. Then the other day after Lena discovered a cool lizard down stairs, good lizard, Jay and Lena were walking down the front steps when a baby snake dropped from who knows where to their feet! We could not find said baby snake and I have been living in fear of accidental coming upon it with my bare feet. I have since discovered about 6 new bug bites just from today... oy today, I'll leave that for another time.
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