Packing, packing, packing...

Our move is really taking shape now. We hired a mover who will come and take our things to Eilat on the 26th of February. That's just ONE week from tomorrow! Of course, we have been busily packing (and throwing LOTS of stuff away!) now for weeks. We still have a bit more to do, some of which, such as our computers and the dishes we use every day, have to be packed at the last minute because we'll be using them until then. We also have to attend to switching utilities and several other things before we move. However, I think we're on schedule and will be all ready in plenty of time. And, although the snow today was beautiful, we will NOT miss the miserable COLD weather!

Below is a picture of the stacks of boxes in our living room. And this is NOT all of them, either! On some of the boxes you can see where I have written by hand the word שביר (shavir), which means "breakable" or "fragile".

Snow in Tsfat!

As had been forecast, we got snow today up here in Tsfat. A small amount fell last night, but this morning it came down seriously. Then, the sun came out and quite a bit melted. But, later in the day, we got even more snow. In the late afternoon, though, the sun came out again for quite some time, and now MOST of the snow has melted. However, we may very well get some more this evening or even tomorrow.

Here are some pictures that I snapped with my iPhone (my camera is already packed away!) from various windows in the house.

Spool table by our front door

Our palm, etrog, and little lemon trees

Looking down our street

Our car in our driveway

Road hazard

Yesterday (Friday 17 February) was very windy all over northern Israel. On our way home from synagogue, we ran over something in the road just after the Karmiel East intersection. It was dark, and so I hadn't seen it at all, and I still don't know what it was. I imagine it was either something that had blown off a truck or perhaps a sign that had been blown over. Whatever it was, however, it apparently had something (nails?) in it, because, a few kilometers later, our front right tire went flat.

I called MEMSI, the Israeli equivalent of the AAA in the States. They came out quite quickly and changed the tire, putting the spare on there instead and warning us not to go over 80 kph on it. So, we continued towards home, taking it quite a bit more slowly than usual. When we were almost all the way up the hill to Tsfat, the BACK right was flat! Since we, of course, had no more spare and it was Friday night, we simply drove home from there VERY slowly. We'll have to get new tires and have someone bring them to us after Shabbat.

We've got an apartment!

We found an apartment to rent in Eilat, and we are really quite excited. It is on the top floor (4th floor here, although it would be considered 5th in the States) of a rather new building in the best part of town (called Shakhamon). The landlord and landlady are moving out of the apartment to a townhouse not far away since she is pregnant with their second child. They are very nice people, too. It took us a day longer than we had planned because we wasted a whole day waiting for an answer from the owner of the first apartment we wanted. Then, in the end, he decided he wanted to sell it instead! Anyway, it is a great relief to know that we'll have a good place to live.

Making progress on our move

Yesterday evening, we finally received the first payment for our house from the buyer. The next payment will include paying off our mortgage, on the 26th of February, and, on the 1st of March, we'll receive the final payment and turn the keys over to him.

We have been busily packing for several weeks now and have made good progress on that front. I think we're well over half-way packed.

Now that we have some money, we have begun seriously hunting for an apartment to rent in Eilat. I found 10 apartments on yad2.co.il that looked interesting, and I called about several of them this evening. I've already arranged tentative times to see 3 of them next Sunday. All of these conversations were totally in Hebrew, and I felt pretty confident, too! We'll travel down there on Shabbat and back on Tuesday. Between Sunday and Monday we expect to be able to find an apartment and rent it. I took Monday and Tuesday off from Berlitz in order to make this important trip.

I'll try to take time to write another update after we return from that trip. In the mean time, wish us lots of luck. We're optimistic that we'll be able to find a nice place to live on a high floor with a wonderful view. On a clear day, we may even be able to see Saudi Arabia!

Big change coming soon

This is a personal post about David and me. Another title for it might be: "Good news and bad news".

Let's start with the bad news to get it out of the way. Due to a recent decrease in my income (one of my jobs cut the money I get from them by about 75%!), we can no longer afford to live in our beautiful, but really rather large, house. This means that we will have to sell it and buy a smaller, less expensive place. We had hoped that we would never have to move again, but we will, and quite soon.

The good news is that our house has gone up some in value (we'll get more details about this over the next week or so, hopefully) and that this gives us the opportunity to live in a climate that will be more suitable for us. Our biggest complaint about Tsfat has always been about how cold it gets here and how long it STAYS cold (that, and the wind and rain!).

Since we have to move anyway, we figured we might as well pick a place with weather we preferred. All my work in online, so that is not a factor. So, we went through a process of elimination. The coastal plain, from Shlomi in the North to Ashdod and Ashkelon down near Gaza, is significantly warmer in the winter, but it's WAY too humid in the summer, something that neither of us likes at all. The Jordan River valley, from Metulla to Beit Shean is also too humid. Jerusalem is not much warmer than Tsfat. Besides, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv are both MUCH too expensive and MUCH too urban for us, as well. Be'er Sheva is dryer but still a little more humid than we like, and, besides that, neither of us is crazy about it either. Mitzpe Ramon (in the middle of the Negev) is very dry, but it's also a bit chilly in the winter, since it's at a fairly high elevation, at it, too, has little appeal to us.

Those of you familiar with Israel can now see what is left: Eilat! Eilat is mild and dry in the winter, getting very little rain at all. Of course, it's VERY hot in the summer, but it's also a very dry heat, and it does cool off at night. Besides, both of us find Eilat to be an interesting city. The geography is interesting, with the dry Eilat mountains immediately back of the city (to the west), the Arava Valley to the north, and the Red Sea on the east and south (with Aqaba, Jordan, and the mountains of Edom to the east). Eilat is also a nicely laid out city, with broad boulevards, easy parking, and very little traffic, even at the height of "the season" (we were there on the 26th of December!).

A little research on real estate prices convinces us that we should be able to get a place there with 2 or 3 bedrooms that we can afford. It won't be a villa, but it should be nice for us, and it will be cheaper to heat and cool, as well.

Of course, there's much to do to make all this happen. We must contact a realtor here and get the process of selling our house started immediately. We must also contact a realtor in Eilat to find a place there. And we have TONS of packing and cleaning to do before we can move. It will probably take at least 2 or 3 months to make all of this happen, but we're convinced that it CAN be done, and that our lives will be better at the end.

We'll miss the North, and we will especially miss our wonderful congregation, Emet V'Shalom, in Nahariya. But Israel is a small country, and we should be able to make trips to the North several times a year without much trouble at all (and without busting our budget).

So, in the end, this is mostly good news, and we're actually beginning to get excited about the possibility. I'll try to remember to keep you posted as the process moves forward.

A short vacation in Eilat

The cliffs of Makhtesh Ramon at Mitzpe Ramon

David and I have long wanted to take a short winter vacation in Eilat. This year, we just decided to go ahead and do it. I booked a room for us at Kibbutz Eilot (located 3 km north of the city of Eilat) for 2 nights (the 25th and the 26th of December, 2011).

Here are some pictures I took on this trip. Rather than driving down the Jordan River valley and past the Dead Sea (the shortest route), we decided to go on highway 6, west of Judea and Samaria (the area also erroneously known as "the West Bank", the name given to it by the Kingdom of Jordan during the 19 years of illegal occupation of it, from 1948 to 1967).

We ate lunch at a pizza place in a mall in Be'er Sheva. Then we continued south to Mitzpe Ramon, a town that sits right at the edge of Makhtesh Ramon, a deep, dry valley with steep walls. The picture above was taken from the spot where the highway leaves Mitzpe Ramon and starts down into the makhtesh.

Here's a friendly Nubian ibix (we thought it was a goat, but the picture in the Wikipedia article shows one just like it and states that it's a Nubian ibix) at that same turnout.

An ibix at the overlook of Makhtesh Ramon from Mitzpe Ramon

This next view is from the floor of the makhtesh, looking back up towards Mitzpe Ramon.

Looking up towards Mitzpe Ramon from the floor of Makhtesh Ramon

This picture (and the one above, also) was taken on our way back north. This view looks north at two mesas which are on the south side of Makhtesh Ramon.

Taking pictures, looking north at 2 mesas on the south side of Makhtesh Ramon

I woke up early on our first morning at Kibbutz Eilot, so I grabbed my camera and went for a walk. I took the following picture from a spot only 100-200 meters from the border crossing to Jordan. The sun was just about to rise over the Jordanian mountains behind Aqaba, Jordan.

Sunrise over the Jordanian mountains behind Aqaba, Jordan

As I walked back up to the kibbutz, I saw this flock of little birds. Although you can only see 5 of them in this picture, there were at least a hundred in the flock.

Little birds near the entrance of Kibbutz Eilot (3 km north of Eilat)

Along the shore of the Red Sea south of Eilat, there is a coral reef. The structure in the picture is the above-water part of an underwater observatory there. Inside the small round center part, there are 2 interleaving spiral staircases by which one can go up to the balcony at the top of the tower or down to the underwater observatory. The city of Aqaba, Jordan, is in the background of this photo.

Tower above the underwater observatory at the Eilat coral reef (Aqaba, Jordan in the background)

This is the view south-southwest from the balcony at the top of the tower. The mountains in the background are in Sinai, the vast territory given by Israel to Egypt in exchange for a promise that they would not attack us. They've kept the promise so far (at least at the governmental level), but, with the current turmoils there and the rapid ascent of the Islamicist parties, it's anybody's guess how long that will last.

Looking south-southwest from the tower, towards the Sinai (Egypt) shore

Before going down to the underwater observatory, we took a short cruise on a ship that has windows below the water level. The young woman who was the guide on this little trip narrated everything in fluent Hebrew, Russian, and English!

Next, we went down to the underwater observatory. The views from both the boat and the observatory were absolutely stunning! Unfortunately, they generally didn't photograph very well. In real life, there are vivid colors, but in the photos, nearly everything seems blue-green. Nevertheless, you can get a little idea of the beauty from this photo, taken from the observatory.

A view of the coral reef and fish from the underwater observatory

In the afternoon, we were quite tired of being on our feet, so we took a drive up highway 12 into the Eilat Mountains, located immediately west of the city. Here's a view of the Red Sea taken from up there. Judging from Google Earth, the mountains in the distance, and possible even the smoke near the middle of the picture, are in Saudi Arabia!

Looking south-southeast from the Eilat Mountains, towards Saudi Arabia

Here's another nice picture from the Eilat Mountains. This small tree seemed quite lonely there in the nakhal (wadi), but it made a nice frame for my picture.

A lone tree in a nakhal (wadi) in the Eilat Mountains

We really enjoyed our short vacation in Eilat and the Negev. At this time of year, the weather up here in the North is really quite cold, and it's a constant (and expensive!) battle just to keep the house reasonably warm. In Eilat, on the other hand, it was warm enough to be comfortable in a short-sleeve shirt, at least by late morning. It WAS cold at night, of course, but not nearly as much as here!