After six months we manage to sell the apartment in Jerusalem and buy one in Ramat Gan.

There were only a few single-family homes in our Neve Granot neighborhood by the Israel Museum, so all the park space and the nearby Hebrew University campus gave it a suburban feel. As you can see from the satellite photo of Jerusalem to the left, it was about a 25 minute walk to the Old City.

The new neighborhood in Ramat Gan was not a dog friendly place. And the population density almost panicked me. I have lived in urban portions of San Francisco and LA, and there is no comparison. Instead, the human density in Ramat Gan reminded me of Mexico City. Look at the satellite photo below. Every one of those boxes represents a three to five story apartment building. Miles of them.

In the middle of my claustrophobic nightmare I am rescued by Egyptian Fruit Bats (see entry #5). Wandering a downtown street at 10PM one evening feeling far from alone, I notice some large pigeons flying about a sizable mulberry tree. But wait, even though there is a lot of street light, pigeons don’t fly at night. Those are bats. Russian teenagers are sharing cigarettes below, completely indifferent to the large mammals fluttering over their heads. And I am getting very excited. Over and over again, I feel much more like a tourist here in Israel than anywhere else I’ve been. These bats must fly in from far off caves in the hills. Somehow they know where the productive fruit trees are and when they are in season.
After I saw those bats, I began to notice them everywhere at night in Ramat Gan. It’s definitely cool to see the huge bats winging silently between apartment buildings at night. Flickr Fruit Bat set.

Food is a wonderful part of life in Israel especially the dairy and the vegetables. It is hard for me to write this, but I think Israeli dairy beats Danish dairy, at least in the “soft cheeses and yogurt” category. There is something here called “Revion” (it is the tall blue container to the left). It reminds me of what we call “ymer” in Denmark, but a little more liquid so that you can just drink it down like buttermilk. Anyway, it brings me close to nirvana after a workout. And then there is the cottage cheese! The first stage is anger over what you have been missing all your life. Then comes denial… maybe you didn’t read the Hebrew label correctly? After that acceptance… and the reflexive spitting the next time you put American cottage cheese in your mouth.

Next up - vegetables. In California our vegetables might be better looking. But the taste in Israel is a world apart. My mother and I have discussed both the dairy and the vegetable situation and decided that the better quality is most likely a combination of two factors. First, the short distances here between producer and consumer, and second, the strains. In other words, produce is fresher here… and because they don’t have to withstand storage and shipping, the growers can select more tasty varieties. I am sure they also have access to different microbes for the cheeses and yogurts.

Vegetables are an important part of most Israeli meals, including breakfast. Chopped bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, onion, garlic, and lemon are the constituents of my Israeli salad. Slice of fresh baked bread, spread with hummus or what the Israelis call “white cheese”, and then dosed with the salad is my standard lunch. Unexpectedly awesome flavor. White cheese is a smoother, lighter, more spreadable, and better tasting version of American cream cheese.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the Bible is untrue, but there are some advantages to living overseas and this figure captures one of them pretty nicely. These were the four editions of Time Magazine for the week of April 2.  While the rest of the world got a harsh analysis of the war in Afghanistan, Time USA subscribers got a mealy mouthed discussion of whether the Bible should be taught in US schools.

I know that there is no such thing as “unbiased journalism” since every for-profit medium has to cater to its viewers. Even non-profit media do their share of “catering” if they want to be read. But I thought this particular example was beautiful and I am going to use it in my service learning course.

But what really is the logic behind this selective use of covers? Does TIME think US Citizens can’t handle more bad news? Perhaps it doesn’t want overseas readers to know about the Talibanization of the US? Put these two cover images together and you just might get the idea that the “war on terror” IS a crusade. The thesis of the article is that “the Bible is the bedrock of western culture and therefore should be taught in schools.” For the past 200 years the foundation of western culture has been science and inquiry… that’s why we are not the Taliban, but my guess is that they will cut the science class in order to create the bible class. Ahh… progress.

I spent a few minutes installing the Google Notebook extension a few weeks ago and didn’t get too excited. It was nice to be able to type notes into a mini text box sort of as a web-based to-do list or log of library citations.

But then I discovered that YOU DON’T HAVE TO TYPE OR COPY AND PASTE!!!

Just highlight, right-click and bam! The text is saved along with the URL!!! Click on the thumbnail for a screen shot of the simple process. This is an extremely fine life enhancement for any scholarship activities you conduct on the web.

Google Notebook for FireFox

Google Notebook for InternetExplorer

Information on all the other things you can do with Google Notebook can be found here.

I also use an extension that places Google Notebook as a widget on my personalized Google Homepage, but that is only available if you set up a Gmail account.

When all the local newsmedia is in a language you barely understand, podcasts become your daily bread. And “Juice” is my bakeshop. It checks for and automatically receives the approximately ten podcasts I subscribe to and each evening I just transfer them to my MP3 player.

Fortunately there is excellent print media in English throughout Europe. When I lived in Europe many years ago I always read the International Herald Tribune. The world coverage it provided back then in the 70’s seemed so exciting compared to US papers and I really suffered when I moved back to the States. The International Herald Tribune in Israel has an added bonus: they include a translated version of a local newspaper, Ha’aretz. This must be an extreme challenge and the translation often is ineligant, but in this day of the internet it is probably the main reason I continue to buy the IHT here several times per week.

When Kris visited for 10 days we hit most of the same spots as I did with Kaj, but in a different sequence. Because ”Setting Limits” was overseas we had to take Jess along on our trip. That also changed things a bit, mainly forcing us to come home to Jerusalem instead of staying at the hostels. See Flickr set ”Kris Israel.” The tone of the visit was also haunted a bit by an accident we witnessed while bathing at the Dead Sea. An elderly tourist fell and crushed her skull, and Kris and I were the first on the scene. Although the two life guards I managed to alert were not highly trained, their boss was. So when he arrived things calmed down a bit. It was also VERY impressive how soon the ambulance arrived. This was far from any urban area and the ambulance reached the site in less than 15 minutes. She was really badly injured though and we both doubted that she survived.

Day 1 – Kris arrives in late afternoon. Spend the night in Jerusalem.

Day 2 – Drive to the Dead Sea and then all the way down to Eilat for a couple of days of snorkelling and night clubs. Because of Jess we slept on the beach… but this is no problem at Eilat.

Day 4 – Drive north from Eilat to Mitzpe Ramon and then Sde Boker to visit friends. This is fabulous desert country with National Parks, army training, Nabatean and Roman era ruins, and Ben Gurion’s tomb. Stop by my office at Ben Gurion University and finally make it back to Jerusalem.

Day 5 – Take in the Israel Museum and then the Old City.

Day 6 – Tour Caesaria and then meet friends up the coast on the beach at HaBonim.

Day 7 – Visit Gamla and Tiberias.

Day 8 – Visit Masada.

Day 9 – More of Jerusalem.

Day 10 – ”Setting Limits” returns and guides us through the Tel Aviv nightlife.

Day 11 – Kris heads back to the States with three Syrian Hookahs.

 

The Shvil Israel is a trail that runs from the furthest North of the country to the Taba border crossing on the shore of the Red Sea in the South. Like all government-sanctioned trails in Israel it is not highly maintained, but is well-marked with three stripes. Different trails have different colored stripes but the Shvil Israel is labelled red, blue, white, kind of like the Russian flag. The philosophy behind this trail is unique in that it deliberately passes through urban areas as well as natural areas, villages of all persuasions, and farms.

Behind the boulder are four flower stalks of the Hatzav, which blooms in the late summer.

Every third weekend I am walking a 15 km segment of this trail and seeing Israel from a perspective few tourists get.

See the January 9, 2007 post for this to make sense…

So Kaj’s visit was a big success and we followed the outline with minor revisions. We got to Gamla National Park too late which is too bad because I think the story there is as interesting as Masada. The park closes at around 3pm in the winter. We got there around 2:30 and so did not enter… BUT we should have. It turns out that you can see quite a bit from the lookout without climbing down to the walled town itself… and the lookout is only a ten-minute walk.

We also didn’t do the Tel Aviv nightclub scene. Cold and rainy and we were tired. Another time.

For a look at the photos from our trip check out our Flickr Slideshow.

Tomorrow I head to the European Computational Biology Meeting in Eilat… looking forward to giving a report from there!

Click for full size.

Over the past many visits to Israel and now these past four months of living here, I have developed what I consider to be a pretty fine 10-day tour of the land. And tommorrow I get to try out this refined version with my son Kaj.

Day 1: Based in Jerusalem
Morning - Walk to Old City via Knesset, Tower of David Museum then take walk on walls to Western Wall.
Afternoon - Israel Museum, model of 2nd Temple
Evening - deal with jetlag

Day 2: Based in Jerusalem
Morning - Walk to Old City via Monastery of the Cross and take Western Wall tour.
Afternoon - Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum
Evening - deal with jetlag

Day 3: Start from Jerusalem
Morning - Caesaria
Afternoon - Haifa, Acco
Evening - Golan Field School in Katzrin.

Day 4: Start from Gamla Hostel
Morning - Gamla National Park
Afternoon - Northern Kineret, Sefat
Evening - return to Jerusalem

Day 5: Start from Jerusalem
Morning - Ben Gurion University in Be’er Sheva
Afternoon - Mitzpe Ramon
Evening - Eilat

Day 6: Wake up in Eilat by the Red Sea
Morning - Spend day relaxing with coral reefs
Afternoon - Spend day relaxing with coral reefs
Evening - Eilat Clubbing

Day 7: Start from Eilat
Morning - Timna
Afternoon - Masada
Evening - Ein Gedi

Day 8: Start from Ein Gedi
Morning - Ein Gedi, Dead Sea
Afternoon - Qumran
Evening - back to Jerusalem

Day 9: Start from Jerusalem
Morning - Bible Lands Museum
Afternoon - Abu Gosh
Evening - Tel Aviv Night Life

Day 10: Start from Jerusalem
Morning - Via Dolorosa and Church of Sepulchre
Afternoon - Shopping in the Old City or Jerusalem Archaeological Park
Evening - Last minute errands before leaving.