Lizrael Update

Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004

  • God save the… poultry.

    FYI: Thanksgiving-shabbat dinner was top. My first turkey was juicy as Israeli politics. My guests were mainly Commonwealth folk: 3 Aussies and 2 Brits. Americans outnumbered, just how I wanted it (3, including me). I was hoping for a Canadian but he couldn’t come. Thanksgiving outside the US: jolly good fun!

  • Happy Thanksgiving.

    For now, I’m drinking apple cinnamon tea. That’s as close as I get on an Israeli workday on Thanksgiving. There’s a 7 kilo (16 pound) turkey in my fridge. A sign in my office reads:Happy Thanksgiving!Hodu l’Hashem Ki Tov! Thank God, because it’s all good…

  • Derech eretz kadma l'?

    I took the sheirut from Bar Ilan to Geula, where it ends, instead of getting off earlier at Binyani HaUma because I decided to experiment with the timing of that route and meanwhile get a little tour of Geula.As we (the driver, 6 charedis, and me) were driving through Geula, (which for your reference looks…

  • Cr->zy.

    Right: My tremp never showed -> The taxi driver took the long way to get to the tachana and then got mad that I got out early -> Missed the bus because it left early -> Second bus took forever leaving the station and getting on the highway because the bus driver was a little…

  • Nation observation.

    Some nation observations: 1. One of the professors I have, an American who has been here for 20+ years, teaches us fundamentals in Conflict Management and Negotiation. I’d say he himself is a bit short with us, a bit impatient. He’s always shhing the students and snapping at them when they’re questions seem dumb to…

  • Quitter!

    Sharon quits Likud, forms new (centrist) party, Knesset set to collapse. Haaretz Jerusalem Post NY Times CNN

  • i <3 NY

    This sounds silly, but I really miss New York lately.Remember this? and this?With Thanksgiving and even Christmas coming up, I’m beginning to actually miss ’tis season… Imagine that. Is that what it is to make aliyah? To always miss home, whether I’m here or there?

  • Freedom of spee-

    …And now for something completely different: At public lectures in the States, one would get shot down for using Q&A time for making comments and objections AT the speaker, as opposed to posing a question in front of the audience for the speaker to answer in a formal fashion. At an Israeli public lecture, people…

  • Grad, you ate?

    A little something on Israeli university culture as opposed to what I’ve known (in relation to my academic culture shock in the last 2 weeks): In the States, university was a hardcore 24/7 experience. I lived, ate, breathed college in dorm, lecture hall and frat party forms. As far as work, it was intense from…

  • 10th year memorial – already…

    my brother went to the huge 10th year memorial service in Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv, 12.11.05 (pushed off because Clinton could only come now instead of the actual date, 4.11.05) the assassinated prime minister the conspiracy theories did he or didn’t he?

  • What was, what is, what will be?

    Jordan Sinai Egypt England Spain Saudi Arabia Morocco Indonesia US to name a few.

  • From the mouths of babes and professors.

    The two secrets2success I’ve been told about aliyah, have, unsurprisingly, to do with the manner and condition of the self-image. The first The second: My Jews & Conflict in the Modern Age professor gave me a lift home tonight. He’s originally from Chicago; he’s been here for over 25 years. Impeccable hebrew, by the way,…

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