Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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Yellow haze, yellow sky, yellow rain.
Here’s the view from my office as we sit in the middle of a traditional (but intense) Israeli dust storm. At least it’s supposed to rain tonight… Though that won’t be much of a pretty sight, either. That’s supposed to be Malcha up there… The sun eclipsed by dust… Beware open windows…
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Homebirth in Israel.
UPDATE (April 2011): After this post was written, down the road, for my second child, we did a home birth in our apartment in Tzur Hadassah. I’ve got more info on the subject now from firsthand experience and am happy to share: My home birth story: Israel, Tzur Hadassah, apartment, bedroom. Registering your newborn after…
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A lizrael update pregnant with… updates.
Pregnancy is probably the ultimate example of time flying while also feeling like the slowest dimension, which I’m realizing is especially true for the third trimester. It’s a period filled with inner conflict: yalla, let’s do this already/whoa, what’s the rush, self?! At times I feel like a kid, constantly being asked, “how are you,…
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Radio scare tactics work.
If you’re an Israel driver who listens to the radio in the car – like me – you’ll have noticed about 246247856 times over that there are these commercials from the Ministry of Transportation. A guy is calmly describing nice and pleasant things that you may be thinking about at this moment, and then this…
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Google Israel celebrates election day.
Aww. Google Israel got all cute and created an election day logo for the search engine’s Israeli homepage: Of course, that’s nothing like how our Israeli kalpi (polling) stations actually look; we get a blue tray of paper ballots behind a giant blue oak tag (à la 8th grade science project) and cardboard blue boxes to…
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Election fever, Israeli-style.
I’m sitting in my office, listening as every single person who leaves for the day calls out in the hallway: “Happy voting!” “אל תשכח להצביע מחר” “!ללכת לקלפי, להצביע ולהשפיע” “Vote wisely!” At lunch, I walked past a lively discussion on the strategy of voting and throughout the day have been pepper-sprayed with water cooler…
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On preparing, inside and out.
It’s amazing how the female body prepares itself for birth during pregnancy. There’s the obvious: the beefing up on body mass, the need for sleep, the extending belly. There’s the less obvious: the slowed metabolism, the hyper hormone production, the nesting habits. There are bi-products: the heartburn, the gallstones, the stocking up on vitamin E. Then there’s…
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Maccabi Beitar shout-out from a Tzur girl.
I want to give a heartfelt shout-out to the nurse in the Beitar Aleph Maccabi clinic. Here’s how medical works when you live in Tzur Hadassah: There is a beyond-excellent clinic there; it takes all four kupot, offers kupa and private doctors of different sorts (including dentistry), holds classes in spinning and aerobics, and more.…
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Rain, rain, come our way.
Jerusalemites are celebrating the rain that began as a lightning show last night. I woke up just now to pleasantly discover that it’s still going. We’ve had a bad winter so far this year, the kind where everyone – to an annoying degree – talks about how terrible the situation is and starts judging each…
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Birthing in Jerusalem hospitals.
As my third trimester quickly approaches, I’ve been getting serious about touring and registering at hospitals, considering alternative birthing options and doing the doula dance. Yep, this is the ‘bureaucratic’ and technical aspect of being pregnant. In the last month we’ve done hospital tours in two popular Jerusalem hospitals: Hadassah Ein Karem and Shaarei Tzedek.…
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Sorry in advance, Jewish baby.
Me: check this out… “As the fetus reacts to sounds, its pulse increases. Your baby will even move in rhythm to music.” we’ll see if it has two left feet like it’s momma Husband: funky Husband: but it is jewish… how good can it really move?
Questions? Comments? Advice?