Lizrael Update

Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004

  • The outsiders inside

    Last week, I was driving through the machsom, or checkpoint, between Beitar Illit and Tzur Hadassah. When I say ‘driving through,’ I mean that literally: I slowed for the speed bumps, waved at the soldiers on duty, and sped up to get home. But not before noticing the driver in front of me, who had…

  • The time I made muffins! Sweet Potato Banana CHOCOLATE CHIP Muffins!

    When a lazy person loves muffins, and has a motivated friend who loves muffins, amazing things happen. In the mouth. Yesterday, inspired by a friend who refuses to give up on my baking potential, I made the decision to bake these incredibly simple Sweet Potato Banana Muffins. Except, I realized all too late, I wasn’t prepared……

  • An expat’s view: How joining Vine helps me celebrate humankind

    Have you tried Vine yet? It’s the video answer to Instagram and Twitter. And in the tradition of most starting-out social media platforms, when I heard all the buzz about it, I could only react with, why? Vine was iOS-only for a while, and this week joined the Android world. So yesterday I downloaded it. First…

  • The dogs and the bees.

    When you’re in the park with your kid, and a nice lady with a dog is chatting you up on the park bench, and your son is staring at the dog’s hind legs, and he asks, “What is that black thing coming out of him?” And you take a breath and answer, “his balls.” “And…

  • Organ donation in Israel: the good, the bad, the depressing, the options

    So… what happens after we die? One thing we know for sure – (ok, two things, for starters, our bodies decompose after some awkward nail and hair growth) – one sure thing is that we leave behind the living. The healthy living. The barely living. The newly living. The next in line. Organ donation is…

  • 5 creative writing lessons I’m taking with me this year

    Just one class left of the writing course I started this academic year. I submitted my final piece for workshopping a couple weeks ago; by the time it was my last go at being workshopped, I was able to articulate and act on some of the more important lessons I’ve learned about myself, my process…

  • Fifty-Two Frames: Spirals

    My own theme of this last year’s writing course is untangling, de-coiling, unfolding myself to expose the insecurity, to face it, to poke it where it hurts, over and over. Now to climb back out of the spiral. Stand on the edge. Look further down the road. Week 22: Spirals Become unfurled. 

  • I’ve officially lived in Israel too long

    Listening to a friend’s story about a guy’s bachelor party in North America. It ends with one of their other friends telling off some strippers. My first thought is, “Wow, he told strippers off in Hebrew?!”

  • Fifty-Two Frames: On the Job

    Week 21: On the Job Re-tired.

  • Favorite moment of the day:

    Parking is a bitch, but once I open that gate, I start to get revved for the next couple minutes. Walk through, towards the door, up the stairs. the stairs curve; at the curve is when it hits me – the enormity of what is about to happen. I hear her voice mingled with other…

  • Fifty-Two Frames: Light Experimentation

    Maybe this is a metaphor for where I am with my writing. I feel a bit battered. Maybe I just need to reach deeper and get burned in order to see the light. Maybe I need to ease up on the metaphors. Week 20: Light Experimentation Go for it.

  • Life in Israel: boys will be boys in flower crowns

    Israeli kindergartens love crowns. This is the first year I’ve been personally exposed to the Israeli flower garland thing. In Hebrew, זר. Kids in gan and early elementary school wear these pixie crowns for birthdays, celebrations, ceremonies. Naturally, the Shavuot chagiga in gan is one of them, and between his gan birthday and this, Koala’s now…

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