I will have halva of that!

 I am feeling a bit sick right now (Rafi, please don’t read this; I know my lack of discerning taste will disappoint you). I was heading back to the apartment when I succumbed to temptation and bought just a sliver of delicious halva at the corner store.

Halva anyone?

As I child, my mother (who grew up in Rishon LeZion, south of Tel Aviv), would tell me how much she loved it when she was growing up so I have always associated it with Israel (OK, that was my excuse for eating it and I am sticking to it). 

Halva is a crumbly dessert, made from tahini and very, very popular here; pretty much every food store has loads of it on display, like gum back home. Its primary ingredients are nut butter and sugar. It contains 615 calories per 100g, 31.9 grams of fat, 54.2 g of carbohydrates and, right now, a slightly nauseous aftertaste.

The halva mention is a good lead-in to my major accomplishment of today: I went to the gym for the first time and worked out with Emanuela. She is a terrific woman, looks very fit, is very positive and friendly and chatty --  but she must have been a Sargent in the army (I am in real pain right now).

Emanuela

After the gym, I spent 20 minutes reading labels of products at the supermarket next door, trying to decide which variations of yoghurt I was going to buy (I was looking for the label in French).

Yoghourts

 At noon I met N., who drove in from Jerusalem to have lunch with me. We sat outdoors in a nearby café, overlooking Rabin Square. The temperature was around 20 degrees and the sun was shining and the sky was blue… and I am sure somewhere birds were chirping. 

N is a fascinating and hugely accomplished man, and it was a real thrill to talk with him for over two hours. Our conversation took us many places, from the brilliance of American companies setting up tech centers all over Israel to the Israeli start-up entrepreneur mind-frame to government policies to encourage entrepreneurship... to politics.

I asked him whether he was concerned about the current situation and, as I am starting to see is the pattern here, his answer was No. From his perspective, even under the worst circumstances Iran is unlikely to nuke Israel because bombing Tel Aviv would take down Jerusalem, and Muslims consider Jerusalem to be a holy city as well, so no deal. As proof, he pointed out that during the second Lebanon war, the missiles were aimed at Tel Aviv but not Jerusalem.

Then he said something that took my breath away: “Why worry so much about this? During the second intifada, 1,053 Israelis were killed by Palestinian attacks. That is less that just one train-load to Auschwitz.” (That number, I just Googled it, was 100 people in a freight car × 50 cars = 5,000 people in each train).

It took my breath away for obvious reasons but also because a few days before departing to Israel, I started to read an extremely well written but horribly sad book called Until the Dawn's Light by Aharon Appelfeld, an Israeli novelist, which Jennifer had bought on our "shared" Kindles. The book is about a Jewish woman who marries a gentile laborer in turn-of-the-century Austria, with disastrous results. It recalls a time and place that are no more (thank G-d) but that powerfully reverberate in collective memory.

By the time I landed in Toronto I had almost finished the book and had a heavy heart. So during my stopover I phoned Jenn and asked her whether the book had a happy ending. It doesn’t. Then, I told her, it was the perfect time for me to be reading this book: by landing in the State of Israel in a few hours I was creating a happy ending for me in the novel.

That is why, just a few days later, hearing N say that while sitting in a nice Tel Aviv restaurant enjoying a lovely low-fat/low-carb/high-fiber lunch, with smart-looking people (in both senses of the word) all around us and lots of happy-looking children walking around dressed up in costumes (tomorrow is Purim), simply brought tears to my eyes. I think I know why I am here.

Purim is tomorrow; the party here lasts 3 days

 From lunch with N. I went straight to coffee with I. – and it was just as if the conversation had continued (in my head anyway) across the street. 

Cafe Masaryk in the sunshine

 We sat in the sunshine and at one point, I. asked me if I wanted to sit somewhere else because it was getting hot (and I guess I was turning red). I told him I was Canadian, and to never-ever ask me that again. 

 He then told me that, since his career had taken him to many countries (Israel is such a small country, with no possibility of vacationing in the country next door, so Israelis like to travel and travel far), while away he often wondered what made people happy, and what the happiness coefficient of each country was. His conclusion? Sunshine. Sunshine in one’s life is what makes people happy.

I am not sure the data bears that theory out (I just Googled that) but I sure felt happy right there and then, sitting in the sun, overlooking the little park across the street from the café.

After we parted I went to my apartment to start planning the evening. I was Skyping  with Jessica but my cell phone kept ringing and ringing from the same person calling me. Each time I let it go to voice mail but that person kept calling and calling and calling. So I put Jess on hold and answered.

It was D., with whom I was supposed to meet tomorrow but he got the dates mixed up (of course at first I thought it was me). He was at the very same café I had just left, a block away from my apartment. I apologized to Jess and walked over (I am so often at that café that am seriously thinking of opening a tab there).

D. is a young entrepreneur with degrees in Engineering, Computer Science – and Philosophy! When I told him it was good that he had insistently kept ringing my cell over and over again, he shrugged his shoulders and told me that as an Israeli he was not shy, and had figured since I was a Yekke and well organized (having arranged our meeting over a month ago), that surely he had to keep calling until he got me.  D. is persistent and has has a great sense of humour: Me?? A Yekke!?!?

Needless to say, the next hour and a half went by very quickly as we engaged in more fascinating talk and lots of laughter. With three such intense meetings back to back, I hope I was able to keep up with him.

Below is a picture of the gym fitness class schedule. There is something odd about it, and it took me a while to figure out what that was. 

Can you tell what is odd about it? I will bring you back a piece of halva if you can guess.

Thinking how lucky I am

Monday is like Tuesday because the work week here starts on Sunday (get it?).

Right off the bat this morning I had to make a strategic decision: either carry an umbrella based on what I was seeing when looking out the window, or carry my sunglasses based on the online weather forecast. I am glad to report my decision was wrong: I took the umbrella and it’s still inside my purse, unopened, with the Shopper’s Drug Mart price tag. Finally, the weather tuned out glorious!

I had a business lunch planned with M and O in a lovely area called Neve Tzedeck, located south; about a 30 minute walk away from my apartment.  

On my way there I saw something I had yet to see (or may be just notice): a café which serves take-away coffees. Oh, how home-sick I got. Even though no one else for miles around was walking with a take-away coffee, I could not resist buying a cappuccino and walking with it in my hands, sipping away. Bliss!

I arrived at Neve Tzedek about an hour early and very much enjoyed strolling about, watching a group of teens on a school field trip; watching less than emaciated ballet dancers taking a smoking break in the sunshine (the Suzanne Dellal Center for Dance and Theater in located there); and taking a picture of a tourist from Germany (who had lived in Edmonton, of course), at her request.

Neve Tzedek  is very interesting and the pace is very slow. It was the first neighborhood built in the “new” city of Tel Aviv, back in 1887; it was the first Jewish neighborhood to be built outside the walls of the ancient port of Jaffa.  The architecture is definitely one of the highlights in the area where the original homes incorporated design elements from the Jugendstil/Art Noveau and later Bauhaus Art movements. (Very advanced for the time, they featured luxuries such as private bathrooms).

 At the beginning of the 20th century Neve Tzedek was the home of many artists and writers, but in the following years the area suffered from neglect and the old houses and streets crumbled away. Only in the 1980s the place recaptured its former prestige, and apparently has since become a stylish yuppie residence with plenty of restaurants, galleries and designer shops.  It is so different than Yaffa just a stone’s throw away as well as the rest of gritty Tel Aviv.

I think the photo above captures so much of this place: in the background, the shiny new business towers and the blue skies; in the foreground the low-level buildings of Neve Tzedeck, the cobblestone street, a bicyclist representing the popularity of the bike here, and a restaurant with outdoor seating – and with a guy working on his laptop (surely wirelessly.  As if not pretty much every café and restaurant here offers free wireless, the Tel Aviv municipality begun offering free and unlimited public wireless Internet recently, starting with a pilot project).

Our lunch was at Suzanna, located in a small old house which captures the atmosphere of the place. I had a most terrific dish called khreime, a spicy Libyan-style fish, which I had to eat very slowly as it is full of small bones (I am petrified of choking; needing a Heimlich Maneuver would not have made a great first impression with O and M).

The lunch conversation was terrific, touching equally on food, business and Jewish Geography. Not unpredictably as it is turning out, M had been to Vancouver –twice. But the amazing part happened when I mentioned I was born in Chile. M named an acquaintance of his who is also from Chile and, guess what, after a quick phone call he ascertained his friend is first cousins with a school classmate of mine.

After lunch I met Rita, a wonderful friend of a friend (and now *my* friend!) on Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street. According to Google maps, the distance between the restaurant and the meeting place is 600 meters, or an 8 minute walk. My hosts offered me a ride, which gave me my first taste of Tel Aviv traffic – and reminded me precisely of why I didn’t want to rent a car while here (Rita, sorry again I was so late!)

Rita and I enjoyed a leisurely walk down Rothschild (one of the principal and most expensive streets in the city, with a wide, tree-lined central strip with pedestrian and bike lanes). We ended our walk at a café, eating cheesecake (OK, we actually shared the cake, so going from a leisurely lunch to a leisurely coffee and cake was not as decadent as it may seem…).

After meeting Rita I hurried to yet another café to meet an uncle. I could not possibly drink more coffee so I ended the day with a glass of wine, sitting outdoors, enjoying the conversation and thinking how lucky I am.

Taking Care of Business

The story of Noah’s Ark was supposed to have taken place in Mount Ararat, Eastern Turkey. This morning it looked like it was happening in real time but 1,205 km south of that, right outside my apartment to be precise. I can't remember this much rain falling in Vancouver all at once (I am lying of course). 

I spent the morning at "my" cafe doing what people who don't have much to do in fact do when it rains: drink many cups of strong coffee, read the Jerusalem Post’s paper edition cover to cover including the Classified Ads and surf the internet using an iPad.  Funny thing is, the place was packed, mostly with young people like (ahem) me, doing precisely what I was doing (OK, based on what I know about Tel Avivians and how they vote, they were probably reading a way more liberal-leaning paper, but the rest was the same). I stayed at the cafe for precisely 2 hours and ate a hearty Israeli-style breakfast (which means the egg omelet came with a huge green salad, an avocado salad and dish of humus, plus a slab of feta cheese. But I was 'good': I told them to hold the bread...).

Later, the second layer of my adventure started: meeting with locals in high tech companies.  

At around 12:30 I took a cab to Ramat Gan to go to lunch with JS, at an Italian restaurant.  The menu, alas, wasn't in Italian so I surrendered and asked for the English version.

But my Hebrew must be improving. After I told the cab driver where to take me, he asked me "how much I wanted to pay." My stunned good-Canadian-girl response was something along the lines of "This is my first cab ride in Israel so I am no position to negotiate with you" --and I said it in Hebrew, no less.  He shrugged his shoulders and started the meter (later he asked me if he could light up a cigarette and wasn't too amused when I told him that "smoking isn't good for you"). The joys of the underground economy.

Tel Aviv so far seems to me to be quite a gritty city. Ramat Gan on the other hand, a suburb just outside Tel Aviv (a 15 minute cab ride away from my apartment), is all shiny and new and full of tall towers. For a moment I wished I had rented an apartment there - then quickly realized it is so very much like any suburb in North America, not quite "the real thing" I seem to be seeking (whatever that is).

 Ramat Gan's economy is dominated by the Diamond Exchange District sporting Israel's tallest tower at over 240 meters, the Diamond Exchange (a world leader in diamonds), and many high-tech businesses, plus many embassies, the European Economic Community, the British Council and Hiriya, the largest waste transfer site in the Middle East (ok, ok, I admit it; I am Googling all this, including the photo).    

 

Now back to my lunch conversation with JS.

The conversation was certainly very interesting for many reasons, including the fact that he was the first person I have spoken to since I got here who isn't selling/has sold me something, so his perspective is different.  Of course I had to also ask him about the political situation or, more specifically, THE question: will Israel take care of business with Iran?

Well, JS, like everybody else I have spoken to (rental agency manager; cafe waitresses; mobile company employee; gym salesperson; strangers #1, #2 and #3 in 3 different cafes, to name a few of my primary interlocutors thus far) doesn't know but believes that there is so much noise that it is unlikely. He tells me that he is a news junkie, like most if not all Israelis, but at work this isn’t a subject that gets discussed much.

And I can see why.  When Israel destroyed the Syrian nuclear reactor a few years back (did you miss that?), it was all a secret and it was denied afterwards. In contrast, this time the subject of  Iran and Israel’s option to fix their “need for nuclear energy sources” has been all over the papers for months on end... so, No, not likely to happen (for a more articulate elaboration of the argument, I can thank my husband for emailing me a link to Barry Rubin’s “Iran war hysteria surpasses all bounds of sanity." In case you are wondering, he and I *are* spending a lot of time on Skype).

After lunch, it was gloriously sunny (I exaggerate, but at least it wasn’t cold or raining) so I decided to take the bus back to Tel Aviv.

As you can see in the picture, figuring out which bus to take wasn’t so easy so I just hopped on a bus aiming towards Tel Aviv and told the driver where I wanted to go. He told me he’d drop me off as close as possible. It sounded good to me. (I am writing this from my apartment so it worked)

Back to Language. On my way back I realized I had 4 voice mail messages but the instructions on how to retrieve them were all in Hebrew so I had to stop by the Cellcom store again, where my new BFF fixed that problem (while simultaneously dealing with three other customers in various degrees of distress with regards to their mobile phone issues). Good thing I don’t have much to do because that alone took an hour.

I also joined the gym. No more excuses. It’s a 5 minute walk from the apartment and it’s open 24/7. Plus, I must be a masterful negotiator because after much discussion with my zaftig gym rat I got a zero discount – but two personal training sessions!

Lunch for One

Saturday is the day of rest in Israel and Tel Aviv was resting today.

The streets were way quieter than yesterday but not as quiet as I remember Jerusalem gets on Shabbat. Tel Aviv was resting, but wasn't resting in Synagogues.

This morning I walked over to a nearby synagogue (where the website says the rabbi speaks English). At home, I often complain about how cold our synagogue can get. But after today, never again! I cannot possibly overemphasize how cold it was: with the temperature outside hovering around 13 C and no heating, this huge, box-like building with stone floors was a veritable icebox. By the time Kiddush came, I was the first one going for the scotch.  The people were friendly and it turned out that the assistant rabbi had lived in Calgary (it’s starting to look like I will meet one person with ties to Canada per day) so he didn’t think I could really feel that cold after all….

With no lunch invitation, I looked up to the sky not for Divine guidance but to figure where the blue part was coming from, and headed that way. I walked over towards the Mediterranean and then headed South, and walked to Yafo.

The Tel Aviv coastline is lined by the "tayelet", or seaside promenade. It is outstanding, with lots of people-watching opportunities. The walk was about 4 km long, very windy and fairly cold but the brisk pace made it alright. The promenade is dotted with reminders of the war of Independence, among other wars.

(I didn’t take many pictures as I needed to keep my hands in my pocket to stay warm, and I know I will be back many times). 

Yafo/Jaffa is an ancient port citybelieved to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa was incorporated with Tel Aviv in 1950 creating the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical story of the prophet Jonah and is mentioned in an ancient Egyptianletter from 1440 BCE. Plus the New Testamentaccount of St. Peter'sresurrection of the widow Tabitha takes place in Jaffa.

By the time I reached the square, the sun was shining brightly and I got a chance to enjoy a fresh glass of pomegranate juice (as good as liquid gold, and as expensive).

As I was thinking I should have brought along my sun glasses, it started to rain so I ducked into an Arab restaurant and ordered essentially a ‘feast for one’.

The restaurant was wonderful and had great atmosphere. In the Arabic tradition, you order one main dish and they bring you 10 salads to go with it. Of course, there was way too much food for me to eat, so I took these pictures and emailed them to Rafi.

By the time lunch was done, the rain stopped and I headed back.

It rains here. Really.

OK so this wasn't on the script: heavy rain. Throughout the day it rains and then clears up enough to wear sunglasses, all within an hour interval.   

Walked Friday morning to the Carmel Market (admired more food). The market is large and pretty intense, much like most Mediterranean markets, only that most (but not all) vendors there are Jewish. So, OK, that isn’t like most Mediterranean markets.

I then walked  over to Nahalat Binyamin Street where the tour books say an amazing and authentic arts and crafts market opens up on Fridays. I was early (no surprise there) so I sat at a cafe waiting for the artists and craftspeople to show up. I sat by the window and watched a smallish crowd walk by as well as watched the rain fall. Eventually I asked my seat mate, a sabra who also happened to have lived in Vancouver (what is this? “We are all Canucks” or something?) when the artists’ market would start, and he said, "When the weather gets better."  So I guess I am coming back next week.

I wandered about the city all day. I have no schedule, no deadlines and no particular aims (and I am not sure this is really me).

Stopped at Bialik’s house. Chaim Nachman Bialik was Israel’s national poet in the years 1925-34 and his house, influenced by Islamic architectural style reflected in the impressive decorations dominating the house and the colorful colors, is now a museum. As a former student at Instituto Hebreo Chaim Weiztmann a long time ago, I believe I could have recited the complete poem El Hatzipor. Luckily, other than the guy who sells tickets, there was no one there for me to test my memory with.

and

From there I walked over to another building almost as famous as the Bialik House: the building where Rafi was born. When we were here 4 years ago, it was in the middle of renovations, which are now complete and it has now been wonderfully restored to its Bauhaus origins (please note the blue sky!).  It also looks to me like they have added an extra floor to increase density.

Later I stopped at the mall to finally get a new SIM card. Signed a 17 page agreement all in Hebrew. I am guaranteed it is a contract I can end when I leave... guaranteed!  (I certainly hope so) The secutiry guards at the entrance still seem to think I represent no more than a minimum threat but everyone gets checked, every time. Imagine what that would do to reatil sales at home.

On that note, earlier in the day I asked the rental agent where the building's "safe room" was and where I could find the gas mask. He looked at me as if I was asking him where to find square wheels. He told me he didn't know about the safe room (isn't it his job to know??) and that neither he nor his family had gas masks. "The western media exaggerates," he told me and shrugged. I most sincerely hope so.

Later on Friday, it being Friday, I asked the waitress at a café close to my apartment where the nearest synagogue was. She looked at me as if I was asking her where to find square wheels...

First day: finding food

The flight over was excellent, especially considering it only took one virtual hour to get to Tel Aviv from Toronto. Ben Gurion International Airport is huge and so very modern, with not a single police officer or soldier in sight. The cab my friend Nilly had arranged was waiting for me and in what truly seemed like no time at all (the aftermath of the “virtual” flight?) I was at the apartment I rented.

The apartment is a bit more...“Spartan” shall we say than what the internet photos suggested, but the location is terrific so I am fine with it (but it immediately made me miss my own home so I Skyped Rafi to tell him).

After unpacking I truly needed a strong coffee so went to a lovely café a few doors down from the building (there are no Starbucks in Israel; many rumours as to why). I struggled with the Hebrew-only menu, but it turned out that the waitress was born in Edmonton so I managed alright.

From there I went to the mall to get a SIM card for my phone. Before you enter the mall, a security guard checks each and every person. I just hope it is that I look trustworthy, because the thoroughness of that check was pretty minimal. 

None of the three separate mobile phone retailers could figure out why my Backberry Torch was dead (I had to leave my beloved iPhone at home as no one knows how to unlock it) so I was unable to get a phone number but at least I got to practice my broken Hebrew by having to repeat the same instructions three times. (Only when I got back to the apartment did I remember one of the reasons I hated my old Torch: the battery dies randomly; you have to remove it and put it back in. Fixed now).

I also checked out a local gym, which I plan to join. The sales person was a lovely plump young woman; I think I like that gym! So far, I am full of good intentions.... (Craig, are you reading this??)

Buying groceries was interesting. Since I couldn’t immediately locate anyone born in Edmonton at the supermarket, I wandered  up and down the aisles truly perplexed. In addition to fresh vegies (which need no labels), I believe I bought various types of yoghurt and cheeses and deli items; I could only make out what these products might be from the pictures (made me miss the English/French labelling we have at home which I have always found annoying. No more). So much for trying to count Carbs.