Long Blog title. Mostly because after starving/thirsting for 25 hours two days ago... i can barely keep down any food/drink right now/the idea of both is pretty gross (don't worry... i'm drinking tea). So here's what has happened.
Yom Kippur started on Friday and went through Saturday. I took the train up to my boss's, Nicole, town called Renaan. Its about 15 minutes outside of Tel Aviv. Fun fact about suburbs/relative distance: you are only a suburb of Tel Aviv if you live 5 minutes outside the city. Amazing how people think of distances here.
The train was really uneventful. They're pretty nice, a lot of soldiers travelling back and forth because of the holiday. Some nice people helped me switch trains, but I feel pretty comfortable using it. For 2 hours, it was only about 10-12 USD. It seems like its mostly focused on the coast, Tel Aviv, Haifa, etc.
Arrived in Herziliyya, a town near Nicole's. Wandered through a park while waiting for her. Israelis love public spaces to play. Parks seem to abound in most Jewish neighborhoods (not down in Lakiya). Met up with Nicole, and we went to the mall, chatted, and grabbed coffee/lunch (well i did... I had an early breakfast).
Fun fact about Friday shopping in Israel: its generally a mad rush. People try to buy all their stuff for the weekends on Friday because Saturday the shops are closed, and Sunday they're back to work. Most Fridays, they close by 3. For Yom Kippur... it was 1 pm. I was glad I didn't need anything.
Finally went to Nicole's place. Nicole is married to an Israeli (who spent much of his childhood in the States) named Asaf. They have three girls: one set of twins who are 5 (Lital and Shani), and a 14 month old baby (Tamar).
In the house, the use of language was really interesting mix of English, Spanish, and Hebrew. Nicole is Colombian, and for the first 3 years for the twins, they were in Colombia. Asaf speaks Spanish, but he and Nicole mostly talk in English since they met in the states. Now in Israel, Nicole and the girls learned Hebrew, so its one big mess. Often times, Asaf or Nicole will say something in English and the twins will respond in Hebrew or Spanish. Shani speaks English more than Lital, but they both have adorable little accents when they speak English. Tamar says Abba (Hebrew for Father), gurgles, occasionally says Mama, and mostly bye when starts walking off somewhere. That baby is adorable.
Because daylight savings time changed earlier here, we had to get ready and eat dinner by 4 pm, so we could finish by 5:05. Afterwards, we walked to shul. Fun fact: most Jewish neighborhoods have multiple temples. I think there are at least 3 in Nicole's neighborhood. We decided to go to a more distant one (10 mins walk) that was an American Modern Orthodox temple. The best part of the walk? no cars at all on the street. You could walk in the middle of a usually busy road. People generally don't drive on Shabbat, but Israel shuts down on Yom Kippur.
Modern Orthodox service was interesting. It felt like a mix between a social gathering, with kids everywhere and a service. We were lucky that people lent us prayerbooks for the service and pointed out where we were in it (since we arrived late). I missed my home temple services, with more emphasis on each prayer, taking time to really focus on the prayer. It felt like i was rushing through it. I'm glad I got to go for services though.
We walked back, tired even though it was only 8 pm. I went to bed by 10 pm. It was a hard fast because I was hungry by the time I went to sleep! Next day I mostly lounged around, read some of the Bible and tried not to think about food too much. We went to services at 5 pm to hear the Shofar blown. This was a different temple, but also a modern orthodox service. Im glad I got to hear the Shofar, and was successful at a full fast. Not having the smell of bagels at home definetly helped :-)
Afterwards, we broke our fast with a quick snack / some water. This is crucial 1) to alleviate hunger and 2) not to stuff yourself silly initially. Although you are very hungry, your stomach has to readjust to eating, and frankly has shrunk w/o food. I had a couple pieces of delicious fruit (fruit here is so fresh. i love it) and then we drove over to Nicole's grandmother's place in a nearby town.
Quick story about Nicole's family: Nicole's family originally hails from eastern Europe. With all of the craziness of the 30s and 40s, her family fled and eventually settled in Colombia. Later on, some moved to Israel, including her grandmother and atleast one Aunt of Nicole's. Nicole's mom and dad moved to Israel from Bogota around the same time as she did.
So it was a big family dinner at Nicole's grandmother's house. The dinner was mostly in Hebrew and Spanish, although lucky me I could understand some b/c of my french (one day my language skills will work in this country!!!). Colombians also love bread: pasta, ravioli, matzah ball soup. Thank god there was salad and this delicious eggplant dish. Still, the food was delicious, and it was a nice way to break the fast.
Spent Sunday and Monday at Nicole's as well. We did some work, went shopping (turns out the cost of living/price of goods is ridiculous here, partly due to the political situation. They can't do mass shipping to Israel + middle east. So goods imported go up in cost.
So... somehow I got sick in all of this. Sunday night Lital had a stomach bug and was throwing up. We thought it was odd... but she stopped by yesterday morning. Seems I might have gotten it. Woke up nauseous. don't want to eat. Barely want to drink. And have been sort of throwing up all morning. blegh. Hopefully tomorrow I will be better. Can't go to Jerusalem today to the meeting, but I can get some work done from Lakiya via computer. Resting now, and hopefully this time tomorrow I'll be great.
Sorry: super long post, but hope you enjoyed. As always, much love
KAS
Yom Kippur started on Friday and went through Saturday. I took the train up to my boss's, Nicole, town called Renaan. Its about 15 minutes outside of Tel Aviv. Fun fact about suburbs/relative distance: you are only a suburb of Tel Aviv if you live 5 minutes outside the city. Amazing how people think of distances here.
The train was really uneventful. They're pretty nice, a lot of soldiers travelling back and forth because of the holiday. Some nice people helped me switch trains, but I feel pretty comfortable using it. For 2 hours, it was only about 10-12 USD. It seems like its mostly focused on the coast, Tel Aviv, Haifa, etc.
Arrived in Herziliyya, a town near Nicole's. Wandered through a park while waiting for her. Israelis love public spaces to play. Parks seem to abound in most Jewish neighborhoods (not down in Lakiya). Met up with Nicole, and we went to the mall, chatted, and grabbed coffee/lunch (well i did... I had an early breakfast).
Fun fact about Friday shopping in Israel: its generally a mad rush. People try to buy all their stuff for the weekends on Friday because Saturday the shops are closed, and Sunday they're back to work. Most Fridays, they close by 3. For Yom Kippur... it was 1 pm. I was glad I didn't need anything.
Finally went to Nicole's place. Nicole is married to an Israeli (who spent much of his childhood in the States) named Asaf. They have three girls: one set of twins who are 5 (Lital and Shani), and a 14 month old baby (Tamar).
In the house, the use of language was really interesting mix of English, Spanish, and Hebrew. Nicole is Colombian, and for the first 3 years for the twins, they were in Colombia. Asaf speaks Spanish, but he and Nicole mostly talk in English since they met in the states. Now in Israel, Nicole and the girls learned Hebrew, so its one big mess. Often times, Asaf or Nicole will say something in English and the twins will respond in Hebrew or Spanish. Shani speaks English more than Lital, but they both have adorable little accents when they speak English. Tamar says Abba (Hebrew for Father), gurgles, occasionally says Mama, and mostly bye when starts walking off somewhere. That baby is adorable.
Because daylight savings time changed earlier here, we had to get ready and eat dinner by 4 pm, so we could finish by 5:05. Afterwards, we walked to shul. Fun fact: most Jewish neighborhoods have multiple temples. I think there are at least 3 in Nicole's neighborhood. We decided to go to a more distant one (10 mins walk) that was an American Modern Orthodox temple. The best part of the walk? no cars at all on the street. You could walk in the middle of a usually busy road. People generally don't drive on Shabbat, but Israel shuts down on Yom Kippur.
Modern Orthodox service was interesting. It felt like a mix between a social gathering, with kids everywhere and a service. We were lucky that people lent us prayerbooks for the service and pointed out where we were in it (since we arrived late). I missed my home temple services, with more emphasis on each prayer, taking time to really focus on the prayer. It felt like i was rushing through it. I'm glad I got to go for services though.
We walked back, tired even though it was only 8 pm. I went to bed by 10 pm. It was a hard fast because I was hungry by the time I went to sleep! Next day I mostly lounged around, read some of the Bible and tried not to think about food too much. We went to services at 5 pm to hear the Shofar blown. This was a different temple, but also a modern orthodox service. Im glad I got to hear the Shofar, and was successful at a full fast. Not having the smell of bagels at home definetly helped :-)
Afterwards, we broke our fast with a quick snack / some water. This is crucial 1) to alleviate hunger and 2) not to stuff yourself silly initially. Although you are very hungry, your stomach has to readjust to eating, and frankly has shrunk w/o food. I had a couple pieces of delicious fruit (fruit here is so fresh. i love it) and then we drove over to Nicole's grandmother's place in a nearby town.
Quick story about Nicole's family: Nicole's family originally hails from eastern Europe. With all of the craziness of the 30s and 40s, her family fled and eventually settled in Colombia. Later on, some moved to Israel, including her grandmother and atleast one Aunt of Nicole's. Nicole's mom and dad moved to Israel from Bogota around the same time as she did.
So it was a big family dinner at Nicole's grandmother's house. The dinner was mostly in Hebrew and Spanish, although lucky me I could understand some b/c of my french (one day my language skills will work in this country!!!). Colombians also love bread: pasta, ravioli, matzah ball soup. Thank god there was salad and this delicious eggplant dish. Still, the food was delicious, and it was a nice way to break the fast.
Spent Sunday and Monday at Nicole's as well. We did some work, went shopping (turns out the cost of living/price of goods is ridiculous here, partly due to the political situation. They can't do mass shipping to Israel + middle east. So goods imported go up in cost.
So... somehow I got sick in all of this. Sunday night Lital had a stomach bug and was throwing up. We thought it was odd... but she stopped by yesterday morning. Seems I might have gotten it. Woke up nauseous. don't want to eat. Barely want to drink. And have been sort of throwing up all morning. blegh. Hopefully tomorrow I will be better. Can't go to Jerusalem today to the meeting, but I can get some work done from Lakiya via computer. Resting now, and hopefully this time tomorrow I'll be great.
Sorry: super long post, but hope you enjoyed. As always, much love
KAS
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