poor red car...

spring is in the air. and i'm not talking about the ...>>>

'it's COLD' in the 3rd coast

here

Popcorn

Popcorn

Walk on the beach

1) a huge experiment in physics
as the waves hit the concrete wall, they bounce back and interfere with other incoming waves. this creates a huge pattern of wavefronts (that you can barely see in this picture...), with the constructive interference causing a spike in the ridge in the junctions where two wavefronts meet.



2) written in stone
The stone wall is scarred with all sort of love statements, names, faces, drawings, cartoons, and what not. This is my favorite...

"the good things that happened this week" [2]

* it was sunny yesterday
* walks on the beach
* we hired a lawyer to tell us what to do
* had fun at 2 new restaurants
* we started using Netflix (it was a gift from the guys at TAU)
* chicken and rice (my calphalon pots are awesome! non-stick re-defined)
* miguel unplugged our kitchen sink in <3 minutes and no mess at all
* snowflakes
* sleeping on a real mattress
* books on sale
* rode the 1st car of the el, saw the driver in action
* it was sunny yesterday

Eating/Chicago

Chicago Restaurants Review

Habeebi's
(1131 W. Bryn Mawr, 773-878-6600)
Wed, Jan 24, dinner. We had a plate of Hummus, Kube and Shawarma, at "Habeebi" restaurant, just down the street from us.
[Hummus: 2.95; Kibbeh: 1.65; Lentil soup: 1.95; Chican Shawarma (plate): 7.50]
When we asked Yussuf Habibi, the owner, where he was from, he said: "Palestine". Later on, we talked with him some more, and learned that he was actually born and raised in Jordan, and spent most of his life in Europe/America, but his family are from Jaffa. We got some "Baba ganush", which is eggplant in thina salad, on the house, as well as a 2nd bowl of lentil soup and a couple of fallafel balls that were left at the end of the day.
surprisingly, everything was very good, except for the pitas which were the flat thin american pita bread that you get at the grocery store. Is is so hard to make good pitas?!?
When we suggested that to Habeebi, he said that he had planned to have a pita oven but the architect took too much room for the men's restroom, and there was not enough space left in the kitchen. Too bad! This could have been a pilgrimage site for all israelies in Chicagoland.
We don't have a rating system yet, but this one is definitely a good israeli/mizrachi (outside Israel).
delivery+ lunch+ location+

Shiro Hana
3242 N Clark, 773-477-1652
Thu, Jan 25th (Ben's birthday)
Japaneze/sushi place. We found this one through the lonely planet book. It's located on the lively Clark street, and serves all kinds of sushi combinations as well as other Japanese food.
We had a few rolls of sushi - spicy tuna, California, salmon&avocado, shrimp tampura, and spinach, that didn't really belong. the wasabi wasn't spicy enough, but the ginger compensated for that. two cups of great misu soup came with the order. the prices ranged between 3-5$/roll (there were more expensive rolls on the menu), their wine/beer list is very limited, but the food, atmosphere and price were good :)
all in all, the best sushi joint we've been to in Chicago. that doesn't say much yet, as it's also the first one...

Our car

Our car is fully equipped to battle life in Chicago:

Car ornament (it used to be air freshener, a few years ago. now it's just decoration, and helps us recognize our car in parking lots).


Time showing device. it has a systematic error of about 2 hours, since it still shows the daylight-saving time in ann arbor. good thing astrophysicists know how to subtract. or add. which one is it ?!?




Car Google


Car Google-maps


Navigation system


Required equipment to keep the navigation system in an operational mode


A driver :)

back to routine (almost)

so we are now a couple of weeks officially in chicago.
we still sleep on an air mattress, but it's now on a bed, surrounded by more furniture and less cardboard boxes.

we are trying to adjust to life in the big city. for instance, keeping all our change for tolls, parking meters, and most importantly -- quarters for laundry. these machines "eat" 4 quarters per wash and 4 per drying cycle. but at least they don't take space in our small apartment -- they live in the basement...

we have a giant stove (i can't understand why american stoves are twice as big as the israeli ones, probably for turkeys ;) but it's so convenient!!
we have already used some of our cool kitchen stuff, the pots and pans, the new food processor(!), toaster... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

one important thing to find, was the nearest meijer store... which is not that near :( -- about 40-45 minutes away. we still don't know what the shortest (timewise) rout is. looks like they don't have such large cheap grocery/everything-you-need stores in town. i guess the cost of rent is too high, and/or city tax, makes it just not profitable. for instance, we found a cluster of stores (best buy, target, etc.) right outside city limits. what they DO have all over town, is walgreens. makes you wonder.

it takes us about 20 minutes to get to the university (give or take the time it takes us to walk from wherever we found parking, which can be pretty far away, depends on time). we both have our offices now, we met some of the people in the department, and found the important facilities (e.g., microwave). we like it there. i feel kinda lonely in my office all alone (there's actually another student there, she showed up today, but she leaves for france in a couple of days...) but i guess it will make it more efficient. it=working. of course, today all i did all day was to research the official immigration website and try to figure out exactly what forms we need to file. baaaa.

so far, so good. i love chicago.