מכתב

תל אביב 23.8.06

שלום אימא ואבא,
מה שלומכם? אני כותב דבר ראשון שלי בעיברית. זה לא טוב, אבל אני לומד.
אני לומד לקרוא, לכתוב ולדבר עם קרן.
כל יום, אנחנו עובדים ללמוד עוד עיברית.
עכשיו אני יושב בריצפה. אין פה קרן. היא עובדת במישרד.
אני לא רואה אתכם במחשב, אבל אני רואה בבלוג אולי.
אני אוהב אתכם, ולהיתראות.
בן.

One Friday in TA

We started with breakfast at the Original Israeli Pancake house. Ben remembered their chocolate-chip pancake very fondly, so we went for it. The restaurand doesn't look like much on the outside, it is located by a gas station in Herzeliya. The chocolaty pancaked arrived and got drowned in a pool of maple syrup. Yummmmmmm.... :)

We then moved on to the center of TA, where between the market and the art fair on Nachlat Binyamin St. we encountered some funny guys playing a familiar instrument:

We bought some fabric at one of the tiny stuffed fabric stores on that street. Nachalat Binyamin is the street of fabric. it's funny how retailers are clustered in TA... the place for fabric is Nachlat Binyamin, bridal dresses can be found on Dizingoff, furniture on Herzel st., and so on.
The stores are tiny and cramped from floor to ceiling with rols and rols of fabric. all shapes and colors... thin and thick, old and modern, i wish i took a picture...
we were finally hungry again , so we stopped over on the way to the car and ate a cheese and spinach Borekas at the famouse "Mama's Borekas" at King George street (on the corner of "Anonymous Alley st." - "Simta Almonit". It comes with a hard boiled egg, some fresh tomato sauce and spicy stuff called "schug".
For late lunch we took home some Hummus from "Hummus Ashkara", which we demolished at home with 2 pita breads. mmmmmmmmm....

After lunch, we had our daily Hebrew lesson. Ben is doing great, learning relly fast with his new private teacher (me!!). Watch out, Dori! Ben will be ahead of you in no time at all!!!

We wnded this perfect day with a run in the park. It started getting cooler lately, and even rained a little... but the clouds makes the sunsets so beautiful.

The famous Shugi in a another brand new act

Due to the audience's demand, I have returned for yet another amazing act. I call this act "the seaside surrender".

Here I am with my lovely assistant*.



Watch closely as I gather a small, but loyal, group of followers.


This is my assistant's assistant. He still does not know that he has a big role in this act. Notice how gigantic he is (well, in comparison to me at least).


Now, look as I strech out all muscles with my personal trainer. This is especially important so that I will be in perfect shape, as my trick demands both stamina and concentration.


And now for the magic:
Behold- Through my muscles and wisdom I have made the giant assistant surrender!


This act is my wedding gift to Kevin - may the Shwartz be with you, and may the Jymer sometimes surrender to you too.....

One afternoon in Frankfurt

A long time ago, when it seemed like our lives were going in the rut of traveling back and forth, back and forth accross the Atlantic, we decided to try routing our flights through different towns in Europe, and get to see some of the world on the way. It so happened, that on the first flight we flew together, we had the wonderful opportunity to fly through Frankfurt, and visit Keren's old German friend Birgit. We had booked a Lufthansa flight that took us from Chicago to Tel-Aviv, via Frankfurt, Germany.

We departed Chicago at 9:40 pm, and a short 8.5 hours later, we found ourselves wandering about the Flughafen in Frankfurt, very very jetlagged, but not too tired to be amused by the German signs all over and the soft German voice on the public address system.
Birgit picked us up at the airport. She looks exactly the same as she did moe than 10 years ago, except for a shorter haircut. I wish i had pictures from back then!!
Birgit and I met when my class took the traditional Holocaust trip to Germany, during which we met with a group of German kids. We had some long conversations, and decided to keep in touch -- we were pen pals!! Remember the times when people used real paper to write their letters? and stamps?
Anyway, the last time we met was when Birgit's class came to Israel for a short trip, and that was... hmm... about 12 years ago.



We took a train from the airport to downtown Frankfurt, that was about a 20 minute ride. We came out of the train station (around where this picture was taken), and the first landmark we saw was the Frankfurt stock exchange.






The picture on the right is the stock exchange (and some wine and bratwurst stands in front of it... yummmm...). The picture on the right is the famous "the bull and the bear", with a couple of tourists in front of them ;). Those of you who follow finance reports, may recognize the 'bull and bear' phrase. We thought they should have opened a bar there and name it "the bull and the beer"...
Next, we were led over to another street, (Grosse Bockenheimer Strasse/Fressgasse). Birgit told us that the name translates to "eating like a pig". And indeed, there were several restaurants there serving pork, and many other delicacies. We sat at one of the typical German restaurants out there, and shared a course of pork leg and Kartofelknudel (and another kind of Knudel which we can't remember the name of) and of course --how could we resist-- the Oktoberfest brew!!



Full and re-engerized, we started to tour the downtown area of Frankfurt. Here are a few representative pictures (click on them and they will take you to the full slideshow!): (1)The Opera house; (2)Goetheplatz; (3)Goethe-Haus (as you can see, the city is proud of Goethe); (4)the first Parliament house and (5)the buildings around it; (6)Roemer plaza; (7)The holy Roman emperors (Ludwig, Carl W, Maximillian and Heinrich) on the wall (sorry, no Charlemange, don't know why); (8)The Kaiserdome (cool!) - or the Imperial Cathedral, reached its current size in 1550 and starting in 1562 the Roman emperors were crowned here (check it out on Google); (9)Main river;
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)

The city sustained heavy damage from Allied bombings in WWII, so much of this is rebuilt. To our understanding, the Kaiserdom took only light damage, so it is pretty old.

After our tour, we dragged our tired bodies back towards the bull and the bear, and sat down for another beer and Tomatesuppe. The sun was setting behind a thick blanket of clouds, and it was time to say goodbye...
Wonderful Birgit walked us back to our gate, and we promised to meet again in less than 10 years :) Thanks, Birgit, for a wonderful afternoon in Frankfurt!

The First Wedding

For those wondering how our first wedding of 2006 went, here are some pictures (already tried to send these to Dalia. ) On the left is the cake Keren decorated for the groom. It's an old tradition that a cake is made for the groom and if an unmarried woman sleeps with a piece of this cake under her pillow, she will dream of her future husband. The guy on the cake is playing his digeridoo and that's an Australian Aboriginal People's flag up in the corner. We were all impressed with Keren's cake decorating ability.
I'm trying to add more pictures but this blog is fighting me. I'll keep trying.