we climbed in the car with our day packs packed for a few days of visits and eating up north! we hummed to the 80/90's pop songs that america had forgotten about but galgalatz, the hip radio station, certianly hadn't. the first stop was in carmiel where we stayed with carmel's lovely aunt and cousin. estrogen ruled the roost in this cute home, i ascertained as they showed me around the rose splattered rooms. the best room of all, though, was the one in the basement where carmel's aunt and cousin run a little business throwing birthday parties. clad in flowers of all kinds and two colours: pink and white, it was a little girl's dream room complete with a china tea party set up and party dresses for the children to wear. after a day of driving, we wanted nothing more than to revert to our little girl selves and watch disney movies. after a way too short hour and a half, we decided to act our age and go out to a bar where we analysed the warped body image in the little mermaid.
the next day, carmel and i went to a nearby kibbutz were we had my favourite meal, hands down, consisting of all fresh, all organic, all delicious tapas. words cannot do this meal justice, you'll just have to take my drool for it. we then whisked off to tiberias and found a beautiful hike in the switzerland forest over looking the famous lake. nobody walked on water that day but we did spot a lone, rather omniscient looking shepard walking on high.
when traveling with someone, there comes a time when every social barrier breaks and you discuss your synchronized bodily functions among other experiences. as was expected would happen at some point, we ran into some problems...um running. so that night we went to carmel's cousin's favourite dance club in the middle of nowhere. as people trickled in in their groups, we slowly realized that everyone there was younger than us -the shaved army heads were a dead give away. as the highschool party progressed, the tunes and our bellies got worse. carmel and i chuckled at our yearning for prunes and rest while we sat in the corner and watched the akward mingling take place.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
don't ask, don't tel aviv
smooth sailing for the most part. i got on the last bus to catch the last train from tel aviv to binyamina. slightly out of my head with sleep deprivation (the kind that comes after too much amusement), i hurried a goodbye to fast friends and boarded alone. it wasn't until the bus took off that anxiety set in. fortunately for me, a distraction serendipitously unfolded.
the bus's turn on to the narrow street was interupted by a double parking motorbike. nonchalantly, the driver muttered something in hebrew to the closest passanger and swooped the obstruction from the street and dumped it on the sidewalk. no problem -that is until the delivery boy that the bike belonged to materialized with heat retaining pizza cover in hand. then the arms began to flail and war was waged between the respecitive deliverers. pizza boy whisked off on his bike scouring through the sidewalks, only to be cut off by the mammoth bus at the next driveway. and that's when the bus driver got cocky. long after we lost the biker, the lingering anger fueled the remainder of the ride. surely, he was internally indulging in the post-fight conversation that everybody has with themselves on their "cool off" walk. we sailed through yellow lights, barely dodged pedestrians, scraped by neighboring buses, took over the lanes and abruptly haulted at the train station. partly frightened, i maintained the frantic pace and boarded seconds before departure.
gotta love synchronicity!
the bus's turn on to the narrow street was interupted by a double parking motorbike. nonchalantly, the driver muttered something in hebrew to the closest passanger and swooped the obstruction from the street and dumped it on the sidewalk. no problem -that is until the delivery boy that the bike belonged to materialized with heat retaining pizza cover in hand. then the arms began to flail and war was waged between the respecitive deliverers. pizza boy whisked off on his bike scouring through the sidewalks, only to be cut off by the mammoth bus at the next driveway. and that's when the bus driver got cocky. long after we lost the biker, the lingering anger fueled the remainder of the ride. surely, he was internally indulging in the post-fight conversation that everybody has with themselves on their "cool off" walk. we sailed through yellow lights, barely dodged pedestrians, scraped by neighboring buses, took over the lanes and abruptly haulted at the train station. partly frightened, i maintained the frantic pace and boarded seconds before departure.
gotta love synchronicity!
a taste of isreal
"to make aliyah" is the phrase used to describe immigration to isreal. the word aliyah means "to ascend." after a few days in the holy land with a self-proclaimed foody, i began to don a slanted understaning of the phrase. one bite into a seemingly ordinary apple and my taste budds ascended to a world of extraordinary food. yes, everything tastes better here, everything!
i tried my best to distinguish the differences before giving up and eating everything. i did, however, manage to analyze a tad. as ironic and depressing as it sounds, looks are deceiving because they're not deceiving. north america has a tendency to sell you everything (coincidentally, in arabic the meaning of the phrase "to sell someone" is to talk badly behind one's back). with extravagent friendliness, your half clothed server will offer you their personal recomendations; the outlandishly big, redder than red apple in the market is but a genetically engineered product masking a watery interior. here, an apple is an apple (infact, the worse they look, the better they taste); servers want you in and out; cooks will take their sweet time to make you amazing food.
traveling with carmel gave me the opportunity to open myself to a world of food. one of the first places she took me to was in a tabun in a nearby town called daliyat al-karmel. i have to admit that i questioned her judgement at first glance. the walls had years of attempted yellow paint speratically showcasing the not so white foundation. it was decorated in what could have been the storeyboard for the last unicorn. we took our seats amongst the hustle of stressed servers and anxiety of hungry costumers. the chairs were falling apart and when i attempted to fix mine, i got a sticky surprise. after a planned trip to the bathroom, i arrived back in time to chow down on some hummous. carmel had denied me hummous in any other place until now and it became clear to me why as we broke the freshly fire-roasted bread and dunked in the creamy, lushious dip. . .i was ascending...
"at least try the rice," carmel said as she motioned at the chicken dish. another doubt surfaced in a how-good-could-this-be kind of way.
"cinnamon -no nutmeg- are those almond slivers?" i couldn't help but exclaim with my mouth full of delicious fare.
and this was just the beginning!
i tried my best to distinguish the differences before giving up and eating everything. i did, however, manage to analyze a tad. as ironic and depressing as it sounds, looks are deceiving because they're not deceiving. north america has a tendency to sell you everything (coincidentally, in arabic the meaning of the phrase "to sell someone" is to talk badly behind one's back). with extravagent friendliness, your half clothed server will offer you their personal recomendations; the outlandishly big, redder than red apple in the market is but a genetically engineered product masking a watery interior. here, an apple is an apple (infact, the worse they look, the better they taste); servers want you in and out; cooks will take their sweet time to make you amazing food.
traveling with carmel gave me the opportunity to open myself to a world of food. one of the first places she took me to was in a tabun in a nearby town called daliyat al-karmel. i have to admit that i questioned her judgement at first glance. the walls had years of attempted yellow paint speratically showcasing the not so white foundation. it was decorated in what could have been the storeyboard for the last unicorn. we took our seats amongst the hustle of stressed servers and anxiety of hungry costumers. the chairs were falling apart and when i attempted to fix mine, i got a sticky surprise. after a planned trip to the bathroom, i arrived back in time to chow down on some hummous. carmel had denied me hummous in any other place until now and it became clear to me why as we broke the freshly fire-roasted bread and dunked in the creamy, lushious dip. . .i was ascending...
"at least try the rice," carmel said as she motioned at the chicken dish. another doubt surfaced in a how-good-could-this-be kind of way.
"cinnamon -no nutmeg- are those almond slivers?" i couldn't help but exclaim with my mouth full of delicious fare.
and this was just the beginning!
Thursday, December 3, 2009
the f word
while trying to minimalize my stargazing at the plentiful stars of david, i slowly made it through the tel aviv airport. i waltzed through the security (largely due to the detailed script carmel provided me with) and off i went through the crowd of people searching for said friend. after a couple of false sightings, my eyes locked and arms flailed when hysteria led me to her. a couple months previous to this blissfull reunion, tragedy carved a deep impression in our relationship. from the debris of a hate crime bloomed a beautiful friendship. when she invited me to join her here in israel, i took the offer as a synchronistic event and chose to see it through.
we caught up on the road to zichron ya'akov, her parents place about 20min. south of haifa. i couldn't contain my disbelief when i read each road sign exclaiming the little distance between myself and jerusalem, nazareth, tiberias. . . ect. at long last, we arrived at her parents place where i was shown to my very own room -what luxury! immediately, i felt so welcomed as if i was not just a friend but family. what i was to learn was that these two words are interchangeable here.
this was heavily reinforced the next day at the lunch. carmel and i were invited to at their family friend's house in the neighboring arab town of feridis (meaning paridise). the minute we walked in the house, we were happy recipients of the plentiful loving family atmosphere and amazing home cooked arab cuisine. we were stuffed to the gills with wonderful food -i was very impressed that their persistant offering was both more persisant and effective than dad's! we had to invent words to politely deny more food by the end of it!!
until recently, 24+ family members lived under that roof. carmel described it as a central bus station before the big move. we got to see the new house which resembles an upscale hotel. despite the latest fashions and marble decore, the children yearn for the homey bus station where they shared rooms and laughs under the much used roof.
we caught up on the road to zichron ya'akov, her parents place about 20min. south of haifa. i couldn't contain my disbelief when i read each road sign exclaiming the little distance between myself and jerusalem, nazareth, tiberias. . . ect. at long last, we arrived at her parents place where i was shown to my very own room -what luxury! immediately, i felt so welcomed as if i was not just a friend but family. what i was to learn was that these two words are interchangeable here.
this was heavily reinforced the next day at the lunch. carmel and i were invited to at their family friend's house in the neighboring arab town of feridis (meaning paridise). the minute we walked in the house, we were happy recipients of the plentiful loving family atmosphere and amazing home cooked arab cuisine. we were stuffed to the gills with wonderful food -i was very impressed that their persistant offering was both more persisant and effective than dad's! we had to invent words to politely deny more food by the end of it!!
until recently, 24+ family members lived under that roof. carmel described it as a central bus station before the big move. we got to see the new house which resembles an upscale hotel. despite the latest fashions and marble decore, the children yearn for the homey bus station where they shared rooms and laughs under the much used roof.
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