This morning, I just set up a new blog here which will be totally in Hebrew. I haven't posted anything to it yet, but I plan to do so later today. Here's the URL for those of you who are interested:
http://harpatkaot-beretz-haniflaot.blogspot.com/
By the way, its title is הרפתקאות של ארלן בארץ הנפלאות harpatkaot shel Arlan b'eretz ha-niflaot ("Adventures of Arlan in Wonderland" or "Adventures of Arlan in the Land of Wonders").
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Tel Megiddo
As it so happened, I didn't have any classes this morning. In fact, my first class for the day was at 3:00. So we decided to take advantage of the free time to go to Tel Megiddo, a national park that we had not been to before. When we had visited Tel Khatzor, we had read that these two together with another one constitute the 3 most important archeological sites in Israel. And Tel Megiddo certainly lives up to that.
Nearly 30 different cities were built on this site, ranging from about 4000 BCE (before the common era) to 400 BCE. It's strategically located along the main route between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and from it one can see the entire Jezreel Valley. It was apparently also considered a holy site for several millenia, since many temples were found there.
Perhaps the most dramatically interesting thing there, though, was the water works, which is similar in concept and design to that at Tel Khatzor and was probably built in roughly the same era (probably at around the time of King Ahab, of the northern kingdom of Israel). Both are solutions to a serious problem for a sizable city: how can the people be supplied with vital water when the city is under siege? In both cases, vertical shafts were cut deep down and connected to horizontal or sloping tunnels that led to hidden springs outside the city walls. In this way, water could be brought into the city without opening the gates and letting enemies in. But the engineering involved in creating these was quite phenomenal. They had no modern digging or blasting equipment, and the tunnels go through rock and are tall enough for me to walk through without stooping! And they are deep in the ground: 183 steps down (I'm trusting the brochure and the signs on this one; I lost count). Quite impressive!
Nearly 30 different cities were built on this site, ranging from about 4000 BCE (before the common era) to 400 BCE. It's strategically located along the main route between Egypt and Mesopotamia, and from it one can see the entire Jezreel Valley. It was apparently also considered a holy site for several millenia, since many temples were found there.
Perhaps the most dramatically interesting thing there, though, was the water works, which is similar in concept and design to that at Tel Khatzor and was probably built in roughly the same era (probably at around the time of King Ahab, of the northern kingdom of Israel). Both are solutions to a serious problem for a sizable city: how can the people be supplied with vital water when the city is under siege? In both cases, vertical shafts were cut deep down and connected to horizontal or sloping tunnels that led to hidden springs outside the city walls. In this way, water could be brought into the city without opening the gates and letting enemies in. But the engineering involved in creating these was quite phenomenal. They had no modern digging or blasting equipment, and the tunnels go through rock and are tall enough for me to walk through without stooping! And they are deep in the ground: 183 steps down (I'm trusting the brochure and the signs on this one; I lost count). Quite impressive!
Hebrew-English-Italian
The other day, while I was waiting for prescriptions to be filled at the pharmacy, I looked around me for interesting things to read, as I usually do. Here's one that I found. It's a detail from a small box (well, actually there were quite a few of them) on the counter. Before I even noticed the Roman letters (well, it's not exactly English, is it?), I was trying to decipher the Hebrew. First, there's גרון garon, which I knew meant "throat" (not a surprising word to see on a medicine package!). But I didn't recognize אק ache until I peaked at the words below. Finally, of course, there's פורטה forte, which is simply a transliteration of the well-known Italian word, "forte", which means "strong". So, although the literal meaning seems a little garbled (strong throat ache?!?), the bigger implication is, I guess, clear: this is strong medicine for your sore throat. I still didn't buy any! :-)
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Reflections on my 56th year
Yesterday was my birthday, so I think I'll take this opportunity to reflect a little on my 56th year, the one I just completed.
It was generally a pretty good year. I enjoyed my teaching and my students, and we got to take several interesting little trips around the North here. We made some new friends, and we got closer to some ones we had only known a little before.
Last winter, David was in the hospital at Rambam Medical Center, in Haifa, and that was probably the closest I have come to losing him in the 13 years that we've been together. We had even gotten to the point of beginning to say "good-bye" to each other. But, thank goodness, he is doing SO much better now!
Towards the end of the year, I realized something interesting that I'm glad I did NOT think about last winter. Both my father AND my mother lost a spouse during the year that they were 55. My dad was 55 at the time that his first wife, Mary, was killed in the tragic car accident (some of you may remember my grandfather's account of that, which I posted here a while back). Nearly 23 years later (when I was 20 years old), my father himself died. He was 78, but my mom was 55. So, I'm glad that history did NOT repeat itself for me during this past year!
It was generally a pretty good year. I enjoyed my teaching and my students, and we got to take several interesting little trips around the North here. We made some new friends, and we got closer to some ones we had only known a little before.
Last winter, David was in the hospital at Rambam Medical Center, in Haifa, and that was probably the closest I have come to losing him in the 13 years that we've been together. We had even gotten to the point of beginning to say "good-bye" to each other. But, thank goodness, he is doing SO much better now!
Towards the end of the year, I realized something interesting that I'm glad I did NOT think about last winter. Both my father AND my mother lost a spouse during the year that they were 55. My dad was 55 at the time that his first wife, Mary, was killed in the tragic car accident (some of you may remember my grandfather's account of that, which I posted here a while back). Nearly 23 years later (when I was 20 years old), my father himself died. He was 78, but my mom was 55. So, I'm glad that history did NOT repeat itself for me during this past year!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Voting for mayor and city council
So, yesterday was the big day for local elections here in Israel. I was teaching all morning, so we planned to go to vote in the afternoon. Our builder, Zion, had called me to make sure that we would vote (for his party, of course!). I called him back when I was done teaching to get directions to the polls. Then we set out with our voter cards. There was a lot of traffic near the area, so I turned down another street and parked a very short distance away. Then we set out on foot, but clearly the directions were not complete. So I called Zion and told him where we were. He came over there in his car to take us to the right place. Or so he thought, at least! It was the same place where we had voted in the national election in the Spring of 2006, but it turned out NOT to be the right place for us for this election, although it WAS a polling place.
At this point, we just decided that the local elections were simply not THAT important and started to walk back to our car. But a young man from Zion's party apparently overheard us talking and understood enough to realize what we were doing. So, after verifying that we really were planning to vote for צפת 1 Tsfat 1 (Zion's party -- he's 2nd on their list of candidates, I think) and for עודד המאירי Oded HaMeiri for mayor (David was carrying their campaign booklet to make sure that he would vote correctly), he offered to lead us to our polling place, which was not far away. The fact that he was very easy on the eyes didn't hurt any, either! ;-)
Here's how the voting works: only one of us at a time was allowed in the room (which was a school library, I think). The election board consisted of maybe half a dozen or so young women. They checked our voter cards and our תאודות זהות t'udot zehut (national ID cards) and handed us 2 envelopes, a white one and a yellow one. Then we went to the voting booth, where we selected a white piece of paper for the party we wanted to vote for and put it in the white envelope. Similarly, we selected a yellow piece of paper for our mayoral choice and put it in the yellow envelope. After sealing the envelopes, we brought them out and put them in the ballot box in front of the election people.
As we walked back to our car (which was parked quite close, actually!), we both commented on how good it felt to have voted, even though I must admit that we're really not too clear on the issues in this election.
Later, in the evening, when we went to the supermarket, we passed 2 fairly large rallies and thousands of posters for various mayoral and city council candidates. These elections happen every 5 years, and it seems to us that Israelis make a bigger deal of these than of the national elections!
At this point, we just decided that the local elections were simply not THAT important and started to walk back to our car. But a young man from Zion's party apparently overheard us talking and understood enough to realize what we were doing. So, after verifying that we really were planning to vote for צפת 1 Tsfat 1 (Zion's party -- he's 2nd on their list of candidates, I think) and for עודד המאירי Oded HaMeiri for mayor (David was carrying their campaign booklet to make sure that he would vote correctly), he offered to lead us to our polling place, which was not far away. The fact that he was very easy on the eyes didn't hurt any, either! ;-)
Here's how the voting works: only one of us at a time was allowed in the room (which was a school library, I think). The election board consisted of maybe half a dozen or so young women. They checked our voter cards and our תאודות זהות t'udot zehut (national ID cards) and handed us 2 envelopes, a white one and a yellow one. Then we went to the voting booth, where we selected a white piece of paper for the party we wanted to vote for and put it in the white envelope. Similarly, we selected a yellow piece of paper for our mayoral choice and put it in the yellow envelope. After sealing the envelopes, we brought them out and put them in the ballot box in front of the election people.
As we walked back to our car (which was parked quite close, actually!), we both commented on how good it felt to have voted, even though I must admit that we're really not too clear on the issues in this election.
Later, in the evening, when we went to the supermarket, we passed 2 fairly large rallies and thousands of posters for various mayoral and city council candidates. These elections happen every 5 years, and it seems to us that Israelis make a bigger deal of these than of the national elections!
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Paving our road (finally!)
Today, they finally got around to actually paving our road, now that we've been here nearly 3 years! We were pretty sure that it would be happening soon, since they hauled in a lot of gravel last week and rolled it all down flat and nice. But we still hardly dared to hope, since they had, after all, put in the sidewalks and curbs way back last December! Anyway, the road is finally paved now, although I think they still have some more work to do, including finishing some of the other roads nearby.
They started this morning before we left on a little trip to Har Khermon. When we came back, we parked the car some distance away and walked in, since we knew they would still be paving. When we got back to our house, we were a little dismayed to see that they were using OUR garden hose to refill the water tank on one of their machines. Then they started filling another one! I went out and told them, in Hebrew, that that was MY water. The man said that they had no other source of water and the it wouldn't be a lot, so I (mistakenly) relented. However, when the hose was still filling the tank some 20 minutes or so later, David simply went out, turned off the water, and prepared to disconnect the hose from the faucet. When they confronted him, he told them, in English, that it was OUR water and to get off the property. And they did! Later, though, they tried to convince us to let them use the water, and offered to pay us 10 shekels (about $3!) for it. I'm sure that they had already used water costing considerably more than that! We did NOT relent this time!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Elections!
If you read the title, you're probably thinking that I'm going to write about the elections LAST Tuesday in the U.S., but I'm not!
NEXT Tuesday, we have elections here in Israel (all over the country, I believe) for local officials: mayor and city council members. Now this might seem like pretty small potatoes, but we have had huge billboards and many, MANY posters all of town now for MONTHS! Nearly alway, there is the face (usually NOT smiling) of a mayoral candidate or, somewhat more recently, a candidate for city council. There is also generally some kind of slogan. For example, יש תיקווה לצפת yesh tikvah liTsfat "There's hope for Tsfat", or צדק חברתי tzedek chevrati "social justice", or בשביל התושבים bishvil ha-toshavim "For the residents" (the latter being the incumbent mayor's slogan).
In recent days, the number of posters has intensified, naturally. And one can hardly park one's car in any parking lot in town (such as at any market or at the pharmacy) without getting campaign literature on the windshield. People are also handing out materials at the markets, along the streets, and at the Wednesday shuk. It's hard to believe that a mayoral race or a city council race could generate so much campaigning!
As I understand it, we vote directly for the mayor, but for the city council it's like the elections for the Knesset (the national parliament), where we vote for the party we want, and the parties are apportioned seats on the council according to the percentage of votes they get. Anyway, we plan to vote for the only mayoral candidate that I've actually met personally and for his party list, as well. The first person on that list is the builder of our house. On their brochure, which I have in front of me, it says (among other things): עדיין יש עתיד adayn yesh atid "There is still a future" (who knew?!), עיר בשקיעה או עיר בתנופה? ir bishki'a o ir bitnuvah? "A city on the decline or a city with momentum?", and אתה המחליט! atah ha-makhlit! "You (masculine singular!) are the one who decides!".
NEXT Tuesday, we have elections here in Israel (all over the country, I believe) for local officials: mayor and city council members. Now this might seem like pretty small potatoes, but we have had huge billboards and many, MANY posters all of town now for MONTHS! Nearly alway, there is the face (usually NOT smiling) of a mayoral candidate or, somewhat more recently, a candidate for city council. There is also generally some kind of slogan. For example, יש תיקווה לצפת yesh tikvah liTsfat "There's hope for Tsfat", or צדק חברתי tzedek chevrati "social justice", or בשביל התושבים bishvil ha-toshavim "For the residents" (the latter being the incumbent mayor's slogan).
In recent days, the number of posters has intensified, naturally. And one can hardly park one's car in any parking lot in town (such as at any market or at the pharmacy) without getting campaign literature on the windshield. People are also handing out materials at the markets, along the streets, and at the Wednesday shuk. It's hard to believe that a mayoral race or a city council race could generate so much campaigning!
As I understand it, we vote directly for the mayor, but for the city council it's like the elections for the Knesset (the national parliament), where we vote for the party we want, and the parties are apportioned seats on the council according to the percentage of votes they get. Anyway, we plan to vote for the only mayoral candidate that I've actually met personally and for his party list, as well. The first person on that list is the builder of our house. On their brochure, which I have in front of me, it says (among other things): עדיין יש עתיד adayn yesh atid "There is still a future" (who knew?!), עיר בשקיעה או עיר בתנופה? ir bishki'a o ir bitnuvah? "A city on the decline or a city with momentum?", and אתה המחליט! atah ha-makhlit! "You (masculine singular!) are the one who decides!".
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Vignettes from the pharmacy waiting line
This evening, I went to the pharmacy to pick up a few prescriptions. Here are a few vignettes from my time standing in line:
Despite the take-a-number system that they have implemented, there is always someone who tries to argue why he or she should be served in spite of having neglected to take a number! This provokes a somewhat heated argument every time, but it always cools down before long.
Someone mentioned Obama's big win in the U.S., and a small political discussion ensued (all in Hebrew, of course!). Everyone seemed surprised when I told them that I had voted(also in Hebrew, although I later realized that I had said בחרתי bakharti, "I chose", instead of הצבעתי hitzba'ti, "I voted" -- the word בחירות b'khirot, "elections", does, however come from the same root as the verb "to choose"), since Israeli citizens who live abroad (or even who happen to be traveling abroad on election day!) cannot vote!
A man wearing a kippah (so he must be Jewish) went up and warmly embraced the head pharmacist, an Arab (most the pharmacists in our local pharmacy are Arabs), with kisses on both sides. Would that "Peace" could actually be that easy!
The same head pharmacist a little later was patiently serving a couple of Ethiopian women, one with a baby wrapped onto her back. He carefully explained to them how to take the medicines correctly. I think they were able to get the Hebrew well enough to understand what he had told them, too!
Another Ethiopian woman, also with a baby wrapped on her back, was still waiting in line while I was being served (by another Arab pharmacist). Her baby began to cry a bit, but when I looked at him and made faces, it distracted him, and he quit crying. I might add here that, although I don't think this woman even noticed much what I was doing, if women do notice that one is paying attention to their children here, they do NOT become paranoid and wonder if the person is some kind of weirdo. Instead, they smile and seem genuinely happy that someone cares about their children!
Despite the take-a-number system that they have implemented, there is always someone who tries to argue why he or she should be served in spite of having neglected to take a number! This provokes a somewhat heated argument every time, but it always cools down before long.
Someone mentioned Obama's big win in the U.S., and a small political discussion ensued (all in Hebrew, of course!). Everyone seemed surprised when I told them that I had voted(also in Hebrew, although I later realized that I had said בחרתי bakharti, "I chose", instead of הצבעתי hitzba'ti, "I voted" -- the word בחירות b'khirot, "elections", does, however come from the same root as the verb "to choose"), since Israeli citizens who live abroad (or even who happen to be traveling abroad on election day!) cannot vote!
A man wearing a kippah (so he must be Jewish) went up and warmly embraced the head pharmacist, an Arab (most the pharmacists in our local pharmacy are Arabs), with kisses on both sides. Would that "Peace" could actually be that easy!
The same head pharmacist a little later was patiently serving a couple of Ethiopian women, one with a baby wrapped onto her back. He carefully explained to them how to take the medicines correctly. I think they were able to get the Hebrew well enough to understand what he had told them, too!
Another Ethiopian woman, also with a baby wrapped on her back, was still waiting in line while I was being served (by another Arab pharmacist). Her baby began to cry a bit, but when I looked at him and made faces, it distracted him, and he quit crying. I might add here that, although I don't think this woman even noticed much what I was doing, if women do notice that one is paying attention to their children here, they do NOT become paranoid and wonder if the person is some kind of weirdo. Instead, they smile and seem genuinely happy that someone cares about their children!
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