Stumbled upon a hip-hop dance showcase this afternoon. I haven’t heard Brand Nubian songs in about twenty years (which grabbed my attention) and these guys were good. Maor and Josh (their names were on the back of their shirts) did their thing for at least half an hour. Here’s a little taste:
Aviva really loved it, and so did the other kids. There doesn’t seem to be any censorship of song lyrics here on the radio or in public places. Really fun though.
We are inching closer to a milestone. On Sunday we will have been in Israel for four weeks. Millie began her day camp program and seems to be having a nice time. She says she hasn’t learned any new Hebrew words, but has made at least two friends (Zoey and Logan) who are likely also Americans. Adena has progressed to the point where she doesn’t turn on the GPS to drive the three miles or so to drop her off. Pickup is at three and Bev usually takes the girls to the playground at Schiff Garden across the street (after getting popsicles every-other-day at the bodega a few blocks down). Here’s a fun photo of “Abba’s Corner” near the day camp with an insightful inscription at the bottom.
Bev has been working a few hours in the morning and an hour or so at night. Adena’s work day is from eleven to six, and so this week Bev and Aviva have been adventuring while Millie was at camp. We drove to the mall, parked, and picked up a dongle to recharge our bus pass cards without having to visit an official kiosk. We took the bus to the Islamic Museum for Art and had a great time. Bev’s favorite was the khamsa exhibit and Aviva got to make one of her own in the museum workshop.
This week was also July Fourth. Typically we are either with grandma and grandpa or savta and saba on the Fourth, which already made it different. Since it is a regular day here, Millie went to day camp and the rest of us checked out the Israel Aquarium.
The headlines from America have been worrisome. It seems that the general political mood has shifted darker in the month that we’ve been away, and that added to the weirdness of this July Fourth week. For what it’s worth, the New York Yankees and American Eagle clothing line are hugely popular here. More popular than you would imagine, so maybe that’s something.
Today Bev took the girls to the Israel Museum by bus. Including walk time to the stop, it was over an hour of travel time to go 3.75 miles. Of course when we got there we walked through the ocean-sized parking lot out front! We didn’t have much time there as the museum closes at two on Fridays, but we enjoyed the model of the Second Temple and the sculpture garden, both represented below.
Surprisingly, the girls also really liked the fashion exhibit and the one archaeological collection we were able to see. On the way out, we walked through the Shrine of the Book, which houses the Dead Sea Scrolls and it was really cool. The bus ride home was broken up with a stop by the lions fountain at Bloomfield Park, then a quick stop at Liberty Bell Park across the street.
Next weekend we will be moving up to Haifa into the apartment we are renting. We are all excited to begin this next chapter of our big adventure and it will be nice to have our own space and more regular schedules. The landlord says the apartment was just renovated and his wife asked again how old our kids are… something tells me we may not get our security deposit back. We have rented a second car for the drive up because there is not room in ours for the four suitcases and the four Wilsons. Everyone is getting ready for Shabbat here and things are slowing down. Bev plans to go running tomorrow morning (he should be adjusted to the elevation by now) and we have been invited for lunch at Judy Brown’s home, who is an old friend of Adena’s family. It should be relaxing.
Thursday morning we all got up early and made our way over to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The spread was incredible with just about anything you could possibly want to eat. Shakshuka is the breakfast food of my dreams. I have to learn how to make it. The chef was making the rounds and struck up a conversation with the girls. It turns out that he is originally from Montreal, but now splits his time between Ein Gedi and Jerusalem and was very playful with Millie and Aviva for our entire stay. Here’s a photo of the room, complete with patio out front.
We took the hotel shuttle to their affiliate spa with access to the Dead Sea. After changing into our swimsuits in the bathroom and a short tractor ride, we were ready to take the plunge.
Here are a few pictures of us in the water, and one of the official lifeguard station.
The girls were irritated by the Dead Sea water, and so we didn’t stay very long. The water was bathtub warm and you really can’t sink (lifeguard did not seem worried). Millie and I floated for a bit, but the bottom is really uneven and covered by cool looking salt/mineral deposits. After a short bus ride back to the hotel, Adena went to work and the girls and I went back to the pool. Dinner was at the hotel restaurant and there was a kosher meat spread with fun desserts. I discovered knishes with spicy ground beef filling. Here’s a shot of us on the walking path back to our room.
After showers, the girls watched Space Chimps in Hebrew and we all went to bed a little early.
On Friday we got up early. After breakfast, Adena settled in to work and I took the girls on the bus to Nahal David, which is located in the Ein Gedi nature reserve. This spring-fed stream has water all year and is believed to be the place where David hid from King Saul in biblical times. Talk about going off the grid! There are waterfalls, pools deep enough for swimming, and great views of the Dead Sea.
The girls were real troopers, but unfortunately we only had about an hour to spend. We would love to go back sometime. But with a car. My only gripe about Ein Gedi is that the activities (mud baths, rock climbing, an Essene archaeological site) are spread out and accessing them without a car is a hassle. A nice lady from Atlanta snapped this picture of the three of us at the second waterfall.
We were able to get the bus back to the hotel on time, despite stopping to frolic once more in the first waterfall on the way out.
We did not have time to see much of the wildlife at Ein Gedi, but there were lots of ibexes (like this one) alongside the trail. We also saw a few hyraxes near the upper waterfall.
The plants at Ein Gedi were also interesting. I’m not sure what kind of tree this is, but Millie and I really liked it’s flowers.
This was a fun side trip. Hopefully we will get to take a few more over the coming months.
On Sunday we pick up our rental car and Millie starts day camp here Jerusalem. I’m not sure which is more daunting: driving here or finding a parking space. More adventures ahead, no doubt.
Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura are celebrating the wedding of a nephew over the next few days, so we decided to go away for two nights to give them some space. It’s not an easy thing to host four additional humans in your house for five weeks and we are grateful. The bus ride to Ein Gedi was surprisingly easy and it was fun to watch the terrain change out the window.
The hotel is on a kibbutz, but the accommodations are nicer than the hotels we typically stay in. For most of the afternoon Adena worked in the room, diligently getting her hours in for the day.
I took the girls to the pool and we stayed there for over two hours. There were people there from all over: Los Angeles, Paris, Hungary.
The second photo is of them looking east toward the Dead Sea, which is billed as the lowest place on Earth. It really does feel like an oasis here and the place is surrounded by rocky, dry hills like this.
In addition to being hyper salty, the Dead Sea contains minerals that are believed to improve skin (see Ahava cosmetics) and contribute to the strange color of the water.
After dinner I took a short walk and snapped a few photos. The one below shows the moon above the Dead Sea, but doesn’t fully capture the effect due to the haze in the distance and reflection of the hills on the Jordanian side in the water.
On the way back to the room the wind was blowing and the smell of sulphur was strong in the air. We’ll get up really early tomorrow so Adena can join us for an activity here before her work day starts.
Yesterday Adena started back to work, which means I will be entertaining the girls solo for most of the day until Millie starts Ramah day camp. Luckily, Noa’s eldest daughter was available to watch them for a few hours while I got some grading done. On the way to pick up the girls from a babysitting session, I stopped by the Tayelet (Armon HaNatziv). When we drove in from the airport, Uncle Paul stopped and he and I got out of the car to take a quick look (Adena and the girls had driven back with Cousin Noam). He explained that the southern view of the Old City from this vantage point is of the same hill where Abraham was instructed to bind and sacrifice his son. It is a very popular place to visit, evidenced by the the long line of tour buses parked out front at all hours of the day.
I walked along and snapped a lot of photos, hoping that a few of them would be decent. Here is a sample.
There was also some kind of celebration going on in the main building just above the Peace Forest. These kids were playing outside on the grass and there was an armed guard stationed by the doorway.
I didn’t have the nerve to snap the guard’s photo. There was a truck attack here in January 2017 that resulted in fatalities, and a knife attack in May 2016. I couldn’t walk the lower paths and still pick up the girls on time, but maybe I’ll try that on a future visit.
Gazelle Valley is a nature reserve located about one mile northeast of the large mall described in a previous post, and roughly one mile northwest of the rental car agency where we will pick up our wheels on July 1st (more on that later). We needed an activity for the kids yesterday, but weren’t able to get there until later in the afternoon. Here’s us waiting for the bus with sad faces.
By then it was really hot and there was construction near the entrance, so the walk in was very dusty.
As a nature reserve, the entire vibe is extremely hands-off and self-directed. The staff were all huddled in the air conditioned office near the entrance, which emboldened us to soak our feet in this shallow pond, despite the sign in the background prohibiting it.
That’s when we noticed the first one.
The hunt for more gazelles began, punctuated by rest breaks at the many shady stops throughout the park.
There was a lizard, some birds, and this little gazelle named Tina (according to Aviva).
We were able to hail a taxi back to Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura’s house to have some downtime before dinner and showers. It was a successful outing and definitely worth a few hours in the heat.
Turkish coffee is great. It is simple to make and delivers almost an entire day’s dose of caffeine in a small cup.
The brewing process is the opposite of the typical American drip coffee. You add a few (three) teaspoons of super-fine grounds, then pour in boiling water from the kumkum. After five minutes, the coffee grounds settle to the bottom, and you’re off to the races. Seasoned drinkers tap the cup on the table to coax out a little more ingestible liquid, then there’s nothing left but soggy coffee grounds. By having to drink less coffee to get adequately caffeinated, you can appreciate the ritual a little more… and get more work done.
The last couple of days have been a blur. More grading. A trip to the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo.
Getting there was not easy, but once inside, everyone had a great time. Luckily there was ample shade strategically located throughout the facility. The fruit bats and kangaroos were probably the biggest hits. I still think referring to a zoo as an “animal garden” (gan chayot) is both delightful and at the same time, a little dark.
There was a successful dissertation defense. Then a trip to the Bloomfield Science Museum.
Again, getting there was challenging, but it wasn’t excessively crowded. The cafeteria had good food and dessert options, in addition to the ubiquitous, caffeine-packed Turkish coffee served in tiny cups. The optical illusion and electricity exhibits grabbed the kids’ attention and energized (pun intended 😉) us all. But the biggest crowd pleaser of all for us was the harp with the invisible strings!
My limited conversations with people here in Jerusalem have revealed several interesting and familiar urban planning issues. Where to put light rail lines in a place where practically everything has historic preservation implications? On the other hand, traffic congestion seems pretty bad for a city of this size. Who wins and who loses when mega-projects with no residential units go up in the heart of the city? American academics like Richard Florida helped to create the economic development plan that led to the Jerusalem Gateway, by the way.
On the way back from the museum, we made an impromptu stop at Machane Yehuda aka The Shuk. It was fun to wander around and take in the sights and sounds.
Chocolate babka, olives, apricots, and pita were a few of our finds.
Here’s a parting photo from the rose garden near the Israeli Supreme Court.
Have a great weekend and good shabbos.
Yesterday was low-key. Spent some time at the playground and took the bus back over to HaTahana.
We strolled along the path and this entryway caught our eyes. Had a nice lunch at this cute mini-mall area.
They were setting up a stage behind this heart.
Adena, Millie, and Noam went to see The Incredibles 2 in the afternoon. Bev and Aviva had more playground time.
Today Bev started grading for his summer course, then we took the bus over to Malha Mall and bought a few things we had been meaning to get. Here’s a streetscape from the bus route.
This mall was huge and packed with people on a Monday afternoon. We started to remember what malls were like before Amazon killed American retail.
The bus ride home was super crowded and long. There were many pushy/rude people. We opted for a cab to dinner at the home of one of Adena’s relatives in a different neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Dinner was great (falafel, hummus, grape leaves, Turkish salad) and the kids played outside in their garden patio.
It was great to break bread with more relatives and on the way home we noted the many construction cranes dotting the skyline. Adena’s cousin Naama is on the picture below.
Tomorrow, we have a half-day walking tour of the Old City, so stay tuned…
Keeping It Israel 