Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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The new American consulate in Jerusalem (now with room to breathe!)
Let’s hear it for American consulate 2.0! Had to go back to ze Fatherland territory to register new baby’s citizenship, get her passport (1/3) and apply for her Social Security number. For a while now, Jerusalem and Jerusalem-area American-Israeli residents have been going to the shiny new consulate in ‘west’ Jerusalem (is Arnona not a…
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Big plans for Tzur Hadassah.
Build it, and they will come. In our case, many already did, but I’m sure that attracting more is part of the plan. Walking through the yishuv this week I noticed the sign declaring what we all thought were just rumors and faraway promises: a major community center in the middle of Tzur Hadassah, servicing…
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Thank you, Beit Shemesh fire fighters.
Very appreciative, very uncharacteristic.
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Free to be… sixty three.
Had a great day, especially since Park Begin wasn’t a disheveled, polluted mess by the time it ended! I love how a bunch of immigrant friends can get together, no local family aside, and have a great time of a national holiday. To the %#@! asshole who let his Doberman Pinscher run loose through groups…
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Israeli flag protekzia.
Someone is watching over us. Taking care that we do right by our adopted citizenhood. And that someone… is our mortgage bank representative. She happens to live in Tzur Hadassah, and her home happens to be located at the bottom of the hill our apartment overlooks. And now that she knows exactly where we live…
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Still here.
It confuses me that about one half of myself can’t believe we’re still here, and can’t believe things will continue the way they are – growing, productive, surviving… and the other half of myself thinks, look at the progress! Look at how far we’ve come, and how far we’re poised to go! We build buildings…
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Family outing, Memorial Day, contributing, Israel.
Proud that we managed to dress, pack up, and transport the kids to the Yom HaZicaron tekes in Tzur Hadassah tonight. And that my two-year-old stayed silent and un-startled throughout the siren. And that we managed to stay for the first 15 minutes. Watching all those kids socialize up until they suddenly stopped for the…
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New baby: One month.
There is nothing like those first few days with your newly born baby. It’s a gray zone; they were just inside you, an extension of your body, but not yet uncurled, open, an entity apart from you. One of my favorite parts is the smell. Before they’ve been cleaned, had a bath, smell like laundry…
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Birthdays.
New parenting milestone: the kindergarten birthday party. I’m not a big birthday person. When I was a kid I was, as much as any other kid. Who doesn’t want presents? But at some point it switched off. I don’t like the attention for something I didn’t do. It feels a little forced and awkward. I…
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Pizza has come to Tzur Hadassah.
As I recently reported, Tzur Hadassah now has the one business that could ruin my entire post-pregnancy weight-loss scheme: a pizza shop. It’s called טומטו Pie (02-6503355) and it’s nestled in the row of shops on Rechasim street. And today, I tried it. Doesn’t it look good? I was excited by the look of it,…
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Guess I’m old, then.
“Hi, I’d like to order my high school transcript signed and sealed, sent to my address in Israel.” “May I ask, for what purpose?” “Proof of my residence in the United States; I have to register my daughter’s birth with the US consulate in Jerusalem.” “Right. What class were you?” “Class of 2000.” “No problem,…
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Home birth and the PKU test.
Because it doesn’t seem that many people know about this, and it’s unnecessary for more home birthers than just us to have that millisecond of freak-out when receiving the phone call, I’m sharing this information with the Israeli home birthing masses: If you’ve birthed in a hospital, you know that before you are discharged, your baby receives that torturous PKU…
Questions? Comments? Advice?