Month: June 2010

  • The Israeli summer daycare problem.

    I’m getting desperate. I don’t like me when I’m desperate. Here’s the deal: I have a wonderful metapelet. There are always pros and cons, things you wouldn’t do yourself, things you wish you didn’t know. But overall, she’s great and my son adores her (and she adores him). Which is why it’s been easy to…

  • The Russian haircut problem.

    Question: Why is it that whenever an Israeli cuts my hair I end up with a Russian haircut? Note, I don’t mean the crazy short, hot-red kind. I mean the long layer in the back, thick shorter layer in the front. Also note, it seems to be a universal phenomenon, no matter if the hair cutter is a…

  • That’s a lot of Keret.

    Have I mentioned that I totally dig Etgar Keret? In college I took a creative writing class that focused on ‘short short stories.’ Like, really short. Micro short. Blogger short. Ever since reading The Bus Driver Who Wanted To Be God I realized that this guy was doing what I wanted to be doing with…

  • Koala update: Fourteen months.

    Word of the month: cheeky. Looks like Koala has started conquering the Big Three… climbing, walking, speaking. The climbing must be something he’s known to do for a while; I just never let him go up the stairs in the apartment until this week. But he managed stairs a couple weeks ago at a friend’s…

  • Conflict management.

    It’s probably only appropriate that at the graduation ceremony for Bar Ilan University’s Conflict Management and Negotiation program, I witnessed my first Israeli-Arab walkout. I studied in the program the same years as a secularish Arab girl from around Uhm Al Fahm. She’s probably around my age, with an assertive nature and a big, warn…

  • Graduation.

    On the day of my ‘graduation ceremony’ from Bar Ilan’s Conflict Management and Negotiation program, I must note that five years ago,when I started, I wasn’t planning to still be at the job that was supposed to pay my way through university. Yet here I am. So, the degree was a bit of a disappointment.…

  • Have a taste of Gan Eden.

    Man oh man, I almost took a bite of this… Can’t imagine what could be worse than childbirth, eh ladies? Also, I love that the company is called Beresheit.

  • So, your wife is pregnant…

    A few weeks ago I noticed an advertisement at a Jerusalem cafe and I had to share: The ad is for a campaign by Clalit health insurance: ReadyDaddy.co.il – ‘because men aren’t born ready.’ Note: And women are?! It’s a cute if not cliche idea; as we can all see, it’s based on the stereotype…

  • Bodies.

    I think I can say now with certainty that death is different once you’ve created life. Somehow, unfortunately, I’ve been to two funerals since Koala was born. One was just a few months after, a year ago; the funeral of a 12-year-old girl. The second was tonight, the funeral of a middle-aged mom. Bodies. When…