Transliteration of the Golan road signs

That last post (with the road sign pictures) reminded me that I haven't yet posted the transliteration of the signs we saw in the Golan last week. Here it is:

Z'hirut! Ma'avar tankim.

In a few more days, I'll try to remember to post the English translation of this.

The Perils of English

Recently, they have been doing some minor road work at the Ein Zeitim junction (where the main road up to Tsfat from the west leaves the bypass). Although the work is fairly minor, they put up plenty of road construction signs. Now, signs like this here in Israel are generally posted in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Here are pictures of a couple of them, which I took just this morning, that you might find interesting. These show quite graphically why you can't just use a dictionary to translate things!

Resolution of water bill

Today, the city office was finally open, so I went in to try to resolve the issue with our water bill (which, as you may recall, was over 3200 shekels due to a leaky faucet outside!). Of course, I had to wait, but when it was my turn, I presented my case. At first, the lady just said that I needed to pay. But then she said that there were some things that could be done. She and a man who was helping her spent quite a bit of time typing things on the computer and even using a calculator. I only followed a little of their discussion with each other. In the end, though, the bill was reduced to only about 1500 shekels, which I think was mostly due to giving me the lowest unit price on all of the water that was used rather than the higher prices normally charged for usage over certain amounts. I had calculated this ahead of time, so this was about what I expected them to do. Then I asked if I could make payments, and that was easily arranged. I paid 300 shekels cash today, and the rest will be paid over 5 months by deductions from my bank account on the 10th of each month. Although it's still a lot of money, I was satisfied that I had gotten the best deal that I could.

Here's the REALLY important part of this, though: I did ALL of this in Hebrew without even a single word of English!

Object lesson in a bagel shop

Today, we decided to take our friend, Mikimi, out to lunch at M Bagel, in town. It was very busy when we first got there, but we weren't in a hurry so we just waited and chatted until the crowd dissipated. David and Mikimi each had a stuffed butternut squash, but I opted for a bagel. The guy who fixed it is one of the regular guys there, a young haredi (ultra-orthodox) man. He speaks English well, and he's always friendly. When he was trying to put the black olives on my bagel, several of them kept falling off. I said, "They just keep trying to run away."

He said, "Yes, but we'll get them all back. They're just like the Jews, who keep running away. But God brings them back."

To which I replied, "And so, here we are!" We both gave each other big smiles and chuckled a little. I thought to myself, "His theology is probably quite different from mine, but this is a point that I think we can agree on whole-heartedly." Indeed, we ARE here, and there's no better place for us to be.

Closed office, extra class, and a trip to the supermarket

This morning, I went into town with my water bill and the receipt from the plumber (who fixed the leak) in hand, planning to argue for a big reduction. But the office was closed. However, a woman did come out while I was standing there reading the hand-written sign (in Hebrew and Russian only!) on the door and assured me that it would be open tomorrow.

At 10:50, just before I got back home, I got a call from the Berlitz asking if I could substitute for a class that was scheduled to begin at 11:00. Of course, I agreed, it was a good class, and I earned an extra 60 shekels or so. This is especially good, since my teaching schedule is pretty slack this week.

After eating a late lunch, we went shopping at the supermarket. We got quite a few things, using money from David's disability payment, which had been promptly deposited into his account early this morning. On Wednesday, we'll go to the shuk (the open-air market next to the high school that only happens once a week) and we'll get a lot of fruits and vegetables.

Another trip to Rambam, and a problem with bugs

Today, we went to David's appointment with his HIV doctor at Rambam Medical Center, in Haifa.

On the way back, we stopped at the Lev HaMifratz mall for lunch. We had our favorite toasted sandwiches there, tz'hubah (which means "yellow", referring to the cheese, which, strangely enough, is more white than yellow!), served with tomato, lettuce, and black olives on the side.

After that, we stopped at the Mega supermarket in Karmiel. We were running low on the flavored Quaker Oats packets, which David eats nearly every morning, and our local supermarket hasn't had them since before Pesach. We also bought some Quaker Oat Squares there, which our local market actually does have, but we got them while we were there anyway, since I'm on the last box. I don't eat them every day, but I like them from time to time.

It was hot and muggy in Haifa today (since it's right by the sea), but it was pleasant in Tsfat today. Now that it's dark out, it's even a bit chilly!

This afternoon, we had to clean out the cupboard where we keep our flour. I had discovered bugs in my bread, and we were pretty sure that that had come from there. Sure enough, they were in an opened bag of barley, a ziplocked bag of Barley flour, and an open, unsealed bag of rye flour. Of course, we threw all of those things out, checked everything else, cleaned the cupboard, put a few bay leaves in there, and put everything away again. It was annoying, but at least we found and solved the problem.

Trip to the Golan

I had no classes today until this evening, so we decided to pack a picnic lunch and take a drive to the Golan. So, we drove down the hill to Rosh Pinna, past Mishmar Ha-Yarden, across the Jordan River, and up into the Golan. We took a road we had not been on, highway 978, up the middle of the Golan to Masa'deh, one of the Druze towns. From there, we continued northeast into an area of many orchards: mostly apples and peaches, I think. After that, we took the road to the Har Khermon (Mount Hermon) ski area. We parked in the shade of a tree just before the place where we would have had to pay to enter and ate our lunch. We decided not to pay the 100 shekels that it would have cost us to enter, to ride the ski lift, and to have a guided tour. We'll do that some other time. After that, we drove home, passing by Nimrod's Fortress (a medieval ruin of an anti-Crusader fortress), the Banias, and Tel Dan. We continued through Kiryat Shmona south on highway 90 to Rosh Pinna and then back up the hill to Tsfat.

While driving up highway 978, I saw some signs that I don't remember seeing before (on other roads). Now, most highway signs in Israel are in Hebrew, English, and Arabic, but these were only in Hebrew. Here's what they said:

זהירות
מעבר טנקים

See if you can figure out what they mean. Tomorrow, I'll give you the transliteration, and later I'll give the translation. :-)

Gym, Shuk, and Japan

I went to the gym this morning for the first time since last Thursday. Mostly, I wasn't able to go because of my teaching schedule.

On the way back from the gym, I stopped at the shuk (open air market), which is only in Tsfat on Wednesdays. I bought 3 onions, 4 potatoes, several figs, several tomatoes, 4 cucumbers (the really good Israeli kind!), and a bag of carrots. The grand total was 40 shekels (about $12), which is pretty good for that much food, I think.

Today, I substitute taught a Berlitz class for someone who couldn't make it (at least, I presume that that's why -- Berlitz didn't tell me why they wanted me to do it). Only one student showed up, but it was a good class. And I added a new country to my list of countries where I have taught students. This one was in Japan! The class went from 1:00 to 3:15 this afternoon for me, but for him, it went from 7:00 to 9:15 in the evening.

First Figs

A few days ago, we picked the first 2 figs off our fig tree. This morning, I ate the bigger one, and it was delicious! One of the Biblical expressions for living in peace and harmony is that all the people sit under their own vine and fig tree. Well, we don't have any vines yet, but we do have a lovely fig tree (although it has branched out very low to the ground), and it feels really good to eat our very own figs from it, real products of "The Land". And so we bless:

ברוך אתה, יי אלוהניו, מלך העולם, שהחיינו וקיימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה.

Baruch Ata, Adonai Eloheinu, melech ha-olam, shehekhianu v'kiyamanu v'higianu la'zman ha-zeh.

Blessed are You, Adonai our God, ruler of the universe, who has kept us alive and sustained us and brought us to this time.

Plumbing repair - stopping the expensive drip

Today, we had just driven into the city, picked up our friend Mikimi (who lives on the other side of town), and parked the car to walk over and get shakshuka (eggs cooked into a savory tomato sauce), when Zion, our kablan (the contractor who built our house) called to tell us that the plumber was at our house and needed to get in. So, we ordered our shakshuka to go, and David and Mikimi waited at the shakshuka place while I went, got the car, and drove over to pick them up. There's very little parking in the downtown, where the shakshuka place is, but I did find a spot where I could wait for them almost right across the street.

When we arrived back home, no one was here, so I called Zion and he got the plumber back a while later. It turns out that the problem was with the faucet that connects the drip system that water our yard to the water supply. The water had then been running from there along the pipe into the basement, where we had found the drip. Anyway, replacing the faucet only cost 250 shekels (around $75), which is quite reasonable, and the plumber also gave me a receipt that should help me get the water bill (around $1000 for 2 months!) reduced somewhat at the municipality. We'll see exactly how much that will be.

A typical Shabbat

This morning, we went to prayers at the Conservative congregation in Kfar Vradim, something that we usually do unless we are out too late on Friday night or are otherwise too tired on Shabbat morning. The prayers were good, and we had a fairly large group (considering that we sometimes have trouble getting even a minyan, i.e. 10 adults).

This afternoon, I fed the snakes, which I usually do on Shabbat. They only eat once a week. It was a good feeding, with most of them eating fine.

In a few minutes, we'll take a walk, when it has cooled down a bit more outside.

Drash Friday night

Last night, we went to Kabbalat Shabbat services at the Reform synagogue in Nahariya, as we usually do. The drash seemed unusually good and relevant. Before I tell you about it, a little background: this last week, there was an exchange between Israel and Hizbollah, the terrorists in Lebanon who started the war with us 2 years ago. In this trade, Israel received the bodies of the 2 soldiers who were kidnapped in the incident that started the war (until the exchange actually occurred, we did not know for sure whether we would receive the two alive or dead). In exchange, Israel gave quite a large number of bodies of terrorists who had been killed in the fighting, and, most importantly, they released Samir Kuntar, who was convicted of killing a family, including small children, in cold blood. It's important to note that this killing had happened (many years ago) in Nahariya. So, the entire country has been in mourning for the 2 soldiers, and the mood has been quite somber. In contrast, Lebanon has been rejoicing as they received this vile man as an adored hero.

Now about the drash. The rabbi started by talking about culture. In this context, he noted the difference between Jewish culture and the culture of so many of our enemies. In Judaism, we are told to choose life, and the emphasis is always on that. Our men and women who defend us are precious, and the need for closure for their families is taken various seriously. Life MUST go on. In contrast, Kuntar was received with great joy, and he spoke completely unrepentently about the need to "free" "Palestine" (by which he means, of course, Israel) and to kill the enemy -- a culture of death, not of life. And THIS is what they were celebrating only a few short kilometers north of us. Rabbi noted that our emphasis on life can often result in pain, but it is nevertheless the right thing to do.

The Story of Our First Months in Israel

From the time that we left California (on December 27, 2005) until May of 2007, I kept an almost-daily diary of our adventures. Here's the URL for the beginning of that:

http://home.earthlink.net/~akwareham/FromSB2TsfatOld.html

It's possible that there are a few broken links in all of that, but I think the text of the story is intact, at least. Enjoy!

A quiet Friday

I originally had 2 classes scheduled for today, but they were both canceled. The first one had been canceled several days ago, so I had planned to go to the gym this morning. However, yesterday I stubbed my toe (the littlest one on my right foot) on a wheel of the shopping cart at the supermarket, so I decided I'd better give it a little rest today.

My second class, which was supposed to last from 10:30 to 12:45 (3 Berlitz units), was canceled only about 20 minutes before it was scheduled to start. The students called the office and said that they wouldn't be able to make it. This was actually good news for me, because I'll still be paid for those units!

Now the only thing I really have to do before we leave for Friday night services is to get a shower.