Keeping It Israel

Sufaganiot: Takes 1 & 2

Trial No.1

Sufganiot (donuts, traditionally eaten on Hanukkah) started appearing in bakeries shortly after Sukkot ended (kind of like Halloween candy appearing in stores in August). We’ve held out until now, but the taste testing has begun (at the specific request of Savta).

This first batch comes from the bakery Shemo.

From left to right: “Klik” (the candies on top are crunchy) with chocolate filling that you squeeze in yourself; oreo cookie topping with white chocolate filling; whipped cream filling with chocolate icing; nougat filling with crunchy topping.

Millie and Aviva did the honors of squeezing in the filling of the 2 donuts that came with the injectors, then we divided all four into four pieces so we could each try all of them.

Millie and Adena picked the whipped cream filled one as the best.

Aviva liked the “clik” one and Bev liked the oreo one. The nougat one was good but soooo sweet.

Trial No. 2

This next batch is from a bakery sort of near Millie’s school (and I forgot the name).

The one at the top has mini malt balls on top and had vanilla custard inside. On the bottom, from the left:

chocolate with sprinkles with vanilla custard; chocolate with m&m-type candy and chocolate inside; hazelnut on top and inside.

These were definitely not as good as the ones from Shemo. No one liked the hazelnut one. The chocolate that was on top of the others was very thick, too thick. And the consensus was that the donut itself was also not as good. Still, we had fun tasting.

The next bakery to try is Roladin!

LA + NY = TLV

A few weeks ago, we visited with Adena’s cousin Zehavit (and her super cute dog), who is an artist based in Tel Aviv. Many people—Zehavit included— are amazed to learn that we have been in the country since June and have not yet been to Tel Aviv. There is a local saying that goes “the best thing about Haifa is the road to Tel Aviv” which underscores how little respect and consideration Haifa gets as a city.

On Wednesday I took the train from Haifa down to Tel Aviv to give a talk at the university and meet with a few faculty. The trip was surprisingly easy. I had taken the bus from our apartment down to the train station area a few weeks ago for the 10K race, and so I knew where I was going, how to navigate the tunnel underneath the station, and how to get to the entrance near the water. The clerk spoke perfect English (the customer in front of me was talking to her in English) and I bought a round-trip ticket―that included all day bus fare―for 40 shekels (just under $11).

This bundled ticket is only available if you pay with cash or credit card rather than the Rav Kav smart transit card that we use for the buses. The train was on time, but really full. I walked through five or six cars and it was standing room only. I later learned that for an additional ten shekels you can buy a seat reservation, which would be totally worth it. I’m just not sure how one claims a reserved seat.

Standing for an hour is not ideal, but at least the scenery was fun to look at. I got off at the Tel Aviv University stop and spent about an hour walking around the massive Yarkon Park.

Moving from right to left in the image above, there is a playground, a lake with a hot air balloon ride, outdoor exercise parks, a climbing wall, two dog parks, and some public art.

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I made it all the way down to harbor area, which is really clean and upscale (there is a Hugo Boss shop on the promenade). That area felt a lot like Suburban Square in Ardmore, PA and I am regretting not taking a photo of the public restrooms which are repurposed shipping containers.

Then it was time to head to campus and finish preparing for my talk. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have been and got on the right bus (there are two bus companies operating in Tel Aviv), but moving in the wrong direction.

I arrived on campus about an hour later than planned, but I got to see a different part of the city and it was fine. The guards at the gate were a little confused by my camera bag and lack of a Tel Aviv University ID card, but luckily I had my passport. I learned about the dissertation work of one of my host’s PhD students and saw a little of the Architecture School facilities. The talk was well attended and I was able to successfully maneuver the toughest questions from the audience (students ask the most challenging questions here too). Afterwards, I chatted with my host and a senior colleague of hers at a restaurant on campus over edamame, pickles, and beer. There are a lot of similarities between their institutional context and mine and I already have plans to go back in a few weeks for a more focused research discussion.

I appreciated the taxi she ordered for me later, but the train station was a little hard to find in the dark. The ride home was just as crowded, despite the double-decker train coaches running during the evening rush hour. Luckily a bunch of people got off at the Hadera West stop and I was able to sit for about half the trip.

My initial impression of Tel Aviv is that it is a mix of New York and L.A. in that it has the really tall buildings and urban amenities of the former, with the beaches, sunshine, and laid-back feel of the latter.

Thanksgiving is a non-event in Israel, but inexplicably, Black Friday sales are wildly popular. Here are a few photos from a quick trip to the Grand Kanyon Mall yesterday.

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Adena actually bought some clothes at H&M, which is shocking if you have ever been shopping with her. We watched “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” on YouTube (heavily edited and only about 20 minutes long) yesterday and made our annual donation to the Eastern Illinois Food Bank.

There was a huge thunderstorm last night that woke everyone up. When it rains, it pounds on the skylight glass near the bedrooms and makes it impossible to sleep. Here is a photo of one of the large snails that seem to be everywhere now.

Today was Millie’s performance at school. They put on a play about Shabbat and we were so proud of her for sticking with it. She is very sensitive to bright lights and the flash photography at performances has been debilitating. She was a real trooper though. Here is a short clip.

This afternoon we are planning to make hand turkeys with the girls. We also have planned to go to Tel Aviv for the day as a family on December 9th because both girls are off for Hannukah.

We are also sampling sufganiot from various bakeries around town. Expect a blog post on this from Adena in the near future!

Things I Learned: 8

Please note that the observations below are based on my personal experience. They do not reflect the opinions of any organization, employer, company, or other contributors to this blog.

A few weeks ago I wanted to make sloppy joes, but could not find Worcestershire sauce or ground beef in the supermarket. Instead I bought some sausages from the freezer section and they were delicious. The frozen, processed meat game is strong here.
We usually have beans-and-rice once a week. As far as trophic levels, you can’t really get any lower and as this vintage clip suggests, serve them together and you get “a flavor that’s supreme.” The problem is, there are chickpeas and kidney beans here. No pintos. No navy beans. No black-eyed-peas.
Hazelnut is the Israeli high fructose corn syrup. It is in everything.
Instant coffee is useful. No really, hear me out. Sometimes you can’t wait for the Turkish coffee to “cook and settle”, so pour that hot water over some freeze-dried crystals, drop in a few ice cubes, and ingest. Immediately.
Supermarkets here also carry bananas that never ripen. It would be helpful if they were clearly labeled though. So you can plan…
You can get craft beer in Israel, but you really have to try (not in supermarkets) and it’s about $3.00 per bottle (see below). Of the ones I have tried the oldest brewery was founded in 2006. Alternatively, you can buy a bottle of red wine from the Galilee for $6.75.

The order in which the ingredients are placed inside the pita when you order a falafel matters. A lot. Some of these guys should take more pride in their work and their product. Put the hummus on the side of the pita, not just at the bottom. Why do I have to tell you this?
Mexican food is not a thing here. There is one burrito place in Haifa that I know of and it never seems to be open. I can’t find salsa that looks like salsa in the supermarket and I have yet to see tortilla chips.
Cereal comes in gigantic (500 grams) boxes. Milk, on the other hand, comes in tiny (1 liter) containers.
On Fridays we buy challah at a restaurant down the street. They get it from an Orthodox neighborhood here in Haifa. It is probably the best challah I have tasted—after the challah that Adena makes, of course. Here’s the lunch I had at that restaurant last week. The dark brown stuff is ful.

Lunch @ Hummus Berdichev

November Blue

While we still have about 6 weeks before heading home, I find that I am often thinking about what it will be like to not live here anymore. There are things that I have become accustomed to living in Israel. Some I will miss, some I will not. Here is a working list:

Cars parked on the sidewalk – sometimes partially, sometimes fully.

Getting toothpicks and a wet wipe after any meal in a restaurant.

Blue, blue skies

A cafe on every corner [no photos, just take my word for it]

The local bakery and local fruit store

Flowers. Everywhere.

Not having Amazon. Which means brick and mortar bookstores, malls that people go to, hardware stores, toy stores, etc….

The selection of juices/juice drink in the supermarket. Sure, I stick with grapefruit and mint-lemonade, but I appreciate the options.

Always being on the lookout for dog poop on the sidewalk. (I will refrain from using a photo here.) On the flip side, lots of dog poop means lots of dogs and we have really enjoyed seeing so many dogs around (shout out to Eddie, we miss you bud).

Cats. Everywhere. Bev already has blogged about the cats.

The ice cube tray in out refrigerator. It makes sense. You fill the trays and there is bin underneath where the trays are. When the ice is ready, you turn the trays with a lever and the ice falls into the bin. Easy. We have not missed having an ice dispenser on the fridge door.

I will leave this post with one more photo (definitely going to miss being so close to the beach):

*bonus: blog title is an Avett Brothers song that I cannot stop listening to.

Closing Time

It’s hard to imagine, but there are only about six and a half weeks left in this adventure. Things have been quiet (in a good way) as we have been lost in our daily routines and weekly rhythm, so we’ve made fewer blog posts. With our time here growing short, planning activities and seeing people has taken on a sense of urgency that wasn’t there before.

A few weekends ago, we met Adena’s cousin Rotem, her husband Yair, and daughter Amit in Caesarea. Unfortunately Rotem’s son had a foot injury and couldn’t join us. The 30 minute drive from Haifa was easy for us and it was even closer for Rotem who lives in Pardes Hana-Karkur.

Caesarea is a modern city with a national park to the south where visitors can wander through ruins, ask holograms of historical figures pre-formulated questions, and enjoy the waterfront. It was built by King Herod as way of attracting investment and currying favor with the Romans—and it worked big time. Imagine the pitch: “Caesarea will be a thriving global city with a world class harbor and shipping facilities. It will offer all the urban amenities you have come to expect—Roman bathhouse, amphitheater, and a hippodrome.” Here is a photo of the kids playing on a sculpture outside what used to be the stables and near where chariot races were held.

Note the large “no climbing” sign in the foreground! The water was really beautiful and we spent a lot of time exploring the ancient harbor.

The kids had a great time and it was good to see Rotem and her family again.

There was one day where Aviva was sick and couldn’t go to gan (daycare). For part of the day I took her down to the playground (the one with the pirate ship from Adena’s post) in this new neighborhood, down the western slope of the mountain. The playground is as extravagant as the apartment buildings with multiple, connected climbing structures, swings, a splash pad, a climbing wall with mega slides, and the aforementioned pirate ship.

We also went down to the Bat Galim neighborhood last weekend. If you’ve been paying attention, this is one of the places I visited on my birthday wanderings back in July, but Adena and the girls had never gone. There is a small beach and swimming area, playground, fishing piers, and a waterfront promenade. Surprisingly, some of the buildings are abandoned and falling down.

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The medical school is nearby and you would think that property that close to the water would be put to better use. Maybe there is some unseen environmental contamination that complicates things and makes the area only inhabitable by medical students.

As we were heading out, a DJ set up and starting playing really cool music along the promenade. If it wasn’t dinner time, we would have sat and listened for a while.

This week was punctuated by two exciting developments. First, we noticed drops of water on the floor underneath the skylight by the front door. After some investigation and visits by two repairmen, there is some debate about the cause of the issue. One guy says there is a leak and water is coming in from outside. The other guy says condensation is collecting on the inside of the skylight and falling back down on the floor. It is incredibly damp and chilly in the apartment now (there are space heaters, but no radiators), so our money is on Ahmad—who says there is no leak, only condensation. It is supposed to rain a lot tomorrow, so we will see. Hey, it’s a rental so what’s the worst that could happen?

The other notable thing to report from this week was my disenfranchisement… by my wife.

We dutifully completed and sent in our absentee ballots a month ago, but they came back to us yesterday. As it turns out, registered mail cannot be delivered to a post office box. Although she meant well, by paying 30 shekels per envelope for trackable delivery, Adena ensured that our votes against Rodney Davis would not be counted. Luckily that race wasn’t very close or I’d feel worse about it…

So we are making a flurry of plans for these last six weeks. On the 25th we are touring Tishbi winery while the kids are at school, and when the kids are off for Hannukah we will stay at a kibbutz in the Golan Heights. It is near the Mount Avital Nature Reserve and apparently there is a volcanic crater that you can hike. Thanksgiving is next week and we are planning to just work through it (not an Israeli holiday). It will be hard not spending it with our friends—shout out to the Shargo family! We will be heading back down to Jerusalem for a belated Thanksgiving celebration with Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura at the end of the month.

Millie is definitely ready to go home, mainly because the school situation is tough (language barrier) and the teacher hasn’t made much of an effort to engage her. I am tired of the clothes I brought and my pants don’t fit anymore. But I think the rest of us have gotten pretty comfy here, damp and drippy apartment aside.

Parks and Recreation

One of the things I have always appreciated about living in Champaign-Urbana are the public parks. There are a lot of great parks in C-U. Similarly, one of the first things I appreciated about Jerusalem, and then Haifa, are the parks – or maybe it is more accurate to call them playgrounds – I don’t know, here many playgrounds are called “gan”, which can also mean garden or kindergarten. (Side note: Since gan translates to garden in English, sometimes when referring to the gan teacher, which in Hebrew is ganenent, I have heard some say gardener, which I find cute.)

We have spent a lot of time at playgrounds here because, well, we have two kids. If you can accept that they will not be as clean as you might like, they are really well done. The climbing equipment is great, there is usually shade, there is always a variety of play structures, and there is always at least one within walking distance. And they are all different. One has a fish pond, the other has a life-sized chutes & ladders board and another has a pirate ship. Plus, the girls can spend all afternoon at a park (especially if there is a popsicle stand nearby/on the way, and there often is). I think Leslie Knope would be pleased with the parks here.

So here are some photos of the Wilsons enjoying the playgrounds in Israel.

The North Remembers

The previous week was action-packed. On Friday afternoon we drove from Haifa to Rosh Pina (a town of about 3,000 in the Upper Galilee) and visited for a few hours with one of the urban planning faculty at the Technion.

Rosh Pina is one of the oldest modern settlements in the country and was founded during Ottoman rule. Meirav (our host) baked not one, but two cakes, and gave us a quick tour of the old town along with her husband and one of her sons.

In the old part of Rosh Pina there was a medical research station that was part of the successful effort to eradicate malaria in Israel. We got coffee and treats at the cafe shown above and talked about coming back later to hike up the canyon visible from the overlook to see the spring.

The Galilee region is really fun to drive through. The landscape looks so different from anywhere else we have been here. From Rosh Pina, we drove about another 35 minutes to Metula and spent the night at Adena’s cousin’s apartment.

Metula is a town of about 1,600 on the border with Lebanon. This part of the country gets a lot more rain and is therefore, much greener. The girls know cousin Avi from his visits to the States, and he is currently studying computers and Japanese at Tel Hai College located just south of Metula. We arrived around dinner time and Avi made a fantastic meal. I told Adena it was like going to a restaurant. Later we had family movie night featuring The Pagemaster with Macauley Culkin. Saturday morning it was chilly out, but I got up early to go running. Here is a picture of the view and you can clearly see the border with Lebanon.

We had a leisurely morning, then spent several hours at Kibbutz Dafna southeast of Metula. Here are some photos of us frolicking in the Dan river, along with a guy pushing a baby in the strangest stroller I have ever seen.

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We had a great time visiting with Avi and walked up to the Dado Overlook before heading back to Haifa. Saturday morning was also when we heard the news about the shooting in Pittsburgh, coming on the heels of the Kroger shooting in Kentucky and the spate of intercepted package bombs. It is surreal to be here while all these things are happening in America.

To the extent possible, Sunday and Monday were normal workdays, with the exception of meeting Adena’s friend Jessica (who lives in Jerusalem, but was in Haifa working on a story) for lunch. Adena and I worked at home in the morning, then took the Carmelit down to the German Colony neighborhood. We had been wanting to try a Lebanese restaurant called Fattoush for a while, and we finally made it happen.

On the way back, we popped by HaZikron Garden just to check it out.

As it turns out, Tuesday was election day and all the schools and daycare facilities were closed. Adena and I were caught a bit off-guard and decided to visit Ramat HaNadiv in Zichron Yaakov for half of the day.

We walked around the memorial garden and took a nice family walk along the Spring Trail. It was a nice outing overall, but we did have a bit of a meltdown towards the end.

Wednesday was Halloween. Israelis don’t celebrate it, so we all felt a little like we were missing out. The girls and I made Halloween punch and spider cookies after school. The punch called for gelatin, which made it goopy (no idea why that was part of the recipe!). We tried to drink it, but quickly gave up. The spider cookies on the other hand, were a big success!

We made them from Double Stuf Oreos (although they have something called “Extra Creme” here that is not quite the same), pretzel stick legs, M&M eyes, and peanut butter (or frosting) to stick on the eyes. Yum!

Adena hates scary movies, but each year we watch one for Halloween and we take turns choosing it. This year I picked Hereditary which was hyped as an innovative take on the horror genre, but it was massively disappointing. Aside from being super slow, I had no idea what was happening until the last 30 minutes and then came the mad rush to cram in too many details and too much background. The constant, scary music was over the top and there is literally nothing new here for anyone who has read Lovecraft stories or watched the first season of HBO’s True Detective. I was also considering Alien, Candyman, and Donnie Darko (she hasn’t seen any of these) and any of them would have been much more satisfying. So much for trying something new.

On Friday morning I left the house at 5:30 am and took the bus down to Dado Beach for the Haifa 10K.

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I’m really glad I did it and I was even able to shave over four minutes off my time from the Champaign 10K I ran back in April. The constant walking here combined with running every two or three days has really helped my conditioning and I feel good. So much so that it is hard to imagine going back back to our sedentary lives and driving everywhere. The race route was along the waterfront and I realized how much fun it is to run in a pack of people. I can totally see why wolves find it so appealing.

I had hoped to post this twelve hours ago, but Friday afternoon we had a bit of scare. Aviva was playing in the bedroom and something happened. She couldn’t open her left eye and we eventually figured out where we could take her on a Friday evening. The cab was about to pull away when Adena discovered that Aviva could miraculously open it again and seemed to be able to see out of it. Never a dull moment!

Renovation Nation

About a decade ago a book called “Startup Nation” was published. It focused on the tech sector in Israel and the innovation that has happened here. However, this place could also be called “Renovation Nation” because of all the apartment buildings that are constantly being overhauled. Here’s a photo I snapped this morning while waiting at the bus stop.

The workers are adding a new floor as part of the renovation. There is a government program where old buildings get redone periodically and there is something in the deal for everyone. The developer/builder gets to add a new floor that they can sell for a profit. Current residents get a shiny, new apartment with modern amenities. The government gets strengthened foundations (there is a very real earthquake threat here), higher property values, a bustling construction industry, and incremental increases in urban density.

Much of the criticism of “pinui binui” has centered on where the renovations are taking place (big cities rather than the quake-vulnerable Jordan Rift Valley; not enough renovation in the poorest neighborhoods) and whether existing residents are getting enough value out of the deal (top floor apartments are nicer). The examples of this practice near where we live in Haifa feel very much like high-end units, so the immediate reaction is “yep, this is gentrification”. But on the other hand, it’s not at all clear that existing residents of the building itself are being displaced. Maybe rents go up in the neighborhood and people are priced out, but there is a guaranteed net gain in housing units. At the very least, this constant upgrading where existing residents, developers, and the government all get something they want is an interesting model.

Blog Shorts

I have found that rarely am I at my computer when I have something to blog about. In fact, I seem to compose the best posts while walking home from dropping off Millie each morning…which I then forget about by the time I am able to sit and write. So instead, I am going to share few short thoughts that will probably end up being a mishmash of things.

School/Gan

Both girls are doing well. Millie is always happy to go to her school and has many different subjects including technology, animals, math, Torah, and more. Technically there is also Hebrew language but she doesn’t know enough Hebrew to follow so she reads or draws or works on her Hebrew book that we ordered for her and which has English instructions. It is what it is. Aviva loves gan. She sings songs, has art, and often has a special activity. She also has a best friend, Itamar. Her teachers tell me everyday how they are inseparable. We often get photos via the WhatsApp group and if Aviva is in a picture, you can usually see Itamar right next to her!

Here are a few recent photos of the girls.

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Worse than Comcast?

On Wednesday, our internet went down. This is bad. I need it to do my work. Bev wrote in his recent blog how we made the most of the day so I will not repeat it. What I will add is that we got reconnected by Thursday afternoon thanks to our landlord’s son-in-law (Chen), who apparently is in the high tech field. Which meant that we did not need to deal with Partner, the internet provider, directly. In the end, Chen fixed it himself. From the start he did not hide his low opinion of the company’s ability to bring of any help. Apparently, cable/internet customer service is non existent no matter where you are! I am indebted to Chen.

Hmmm. This is going to be even shorter than I thought. Well, here are a few more photos. From the top: Aviva at gan, B’hai garden from downtown, our Carmelit stop -now with signage, Aviva and Itamar at the park, Millie enjoying lunch at Cafe Greg.

The Play By Play

Last Friday afternoon the girls and I went down to Carmel Beach. We had only been there maybe twice before because it is close to the beach hotels and has a protected (jetty) swimming area. These considerations mean that it is crowded and the shady spots go quickly. We decided to go there because Zamir, Dado, and Students beaches don’t have lifeguards once Sukkot is over (acharei ha-chagim), but Carmel Beach does (moneyed tourists).

There were fewer people, but it was far from deserted. The first row of sun shelters had been disassembled, but the girls had fun playing in the sand.

The water was not cold (looking at you Pacific Ocean), but also noticeably cooler than it was earlier in the summer. Looking up at Mount Carmel from the water was really nice and I made a point of savoring the moment because we may not go swimming here again. If summer is really over, I may also have to stop wearing cargo shorts. Blerg.

On the way home traffic was backed up because the van shown below got stuck in the underpass.

Some of the passengers got out and stood on the back bumper to try and make the van short enough to go through. As you can see, they almost made it. After about ten minutes, everyone backed up so the van could turn around.

Saturday was Adena’s actual birthday. We tried taking a family hike down Wadi Lotem, but didn’t get far because the swarms of mosquitoes were so thick. We had not put on nor brought bug spray so we decided to turn back. Miraculously, nobody seemed to have any bites when we got back to the apartment. The rest of the day was very lazy, topped off with a Milka chocolate cake from the SuperSol.

Sunday we worked a half day, then went to the Mane Katz museum, which is really close to Aviva’s preschool. It is a small museum in what used to be the artist’s home overlooking Haifa Bay. There are four rooms with brightly colored walls and paintings of different sizes on the walls. Adena and I both liked his work and realized that small museums can be really fun and are totally worth seeing. We both liked this painting called “Red Cows” but the museum didn’t have a postcard or print of it. Afterwards, we sat at the coffeeshop next to the museum and took in the view.

That evening we had dinner at Cafe Louise, which is maybe a twelve minute walk from the apartment. It was a nice experience and the space is good for kids. Here are the girls climbing outside as the sun went down.

Today (Wednesday) was rough because the internet connection went down around eight in the morning and has been down for 14 hours (and counting). Not having access to WiFi is surprisingly debilitating. Adena had to take a vacation day and we took the Carmelit downtown. This part of the city is fascinating and I hope we will have some time to explore it before we leave. We walked over to the Haifa City Museum (another small one) and learned a lot about Haifa’s past. I thought it was interesting that there was nothing about the area’s history before the 1700s, but maybe that veers too much into politics and the narrative of who lived here first. Tomorrow Adena and I will take the bus into the Technion together so we can have internet access. Maybe we will get lunch at the Indian restaurant in the basement of the Physics building.