It’s a small world after all…

This past week we were based out of Jerusalem. It is one of the most unique cities in the world, and I really love the feeling I get when walking around it. Highlights were the Western Wall, the very moving holocaust museum, and the old city itself. We also hooked up with a Zionist tour that Dania’s cousin planned for some Americans. We were bussed around the “real” Israel - in that we visited a Bedouin community, a huge Intel plant, and heard lectures by experts working to bridge the Jewish-Arab within Israel’s own communities. Off to Eilat (Israel’s beach resort) this week and Petra in Jordan.

I randomly met my friend Sara in a Jerusalem market who I randomly met while living in Ireland five years ago at Rosh Hashanah services. We had actually lost touch until we randomly met at Univ of Michigan b-school info session two years ago (that had four concurrent sessions going, and we just happened to be in the same one). Dania bumped into two different people that she knew at two different places. It’s a small world after all…

Land of the 3 hour lunch

A huge part of our trip to Israel has been meeting Dania’s extended family. Dania is in touch with 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th cousins. We have been to several lunches, dinners, and parties that have anywhere from 10 to 20 people. It’s very welcoming, yet sometimes overwhelming. You should see me juggle names, keep track of who’s grandma’s brother’s niece’s nephew is somehow related to Dania’s uncle’s sister’s first cousin last removed times five, all while following (or at least feigning to) conversations in Hebrew.

A good example of a day out... We stayed over at my friend Ronnie's (from b-school) place. The next day we ate a late breakfast, went for lunch 2 hours later, ate for 3 hours with his family, walked around a beautiful beach town called Hertzaliya, then went to a dinner with Dania's family that lasted another 3 hours. Goodbye washboard abs. Hello falafel, schwarma (see pic), humus, & pita!

Christmas in Bethlehem

Welcome to the Wild Wild West Bank. Yes. Yes. Dania and I ventured into the Palestinian enclave to ring in baby Jesus's birth. We were not able to obtain tickets for the midnight mass inside the Church of the Nativity, but watched it instead on a big screen set-up on Manger square. We were even interviewed by ABC News Radio (see pic). The reporter was incredulous that we were there on our honeymoon, so hopefully you heard our insightful commentary on an ABC affiliated radio station yesterday!

Dreaming in Hebrew

I woke up in the middle of the night to hear Dania speaking in Hebrew. Dreaming in a different language is always a good sign. Hopefully she’ll be fluent by the time we leave….

I learned the word for ‘cool’ in Hebrew, which is 'sababa.' Slipping it into a conversation brings an instant smile to most people. I always like to find a word like sababa in whatever country I happen to be in. Good ice breakers.

As for the two pics... We probably should have known better than to eat in a sushi restaurant that spelled “Japanese” as “Japaneis” on its outdoor sign. Think it a worthy submission to http://www.engrish.com/? We also encountered a man doing yoga on the beach near old Jaffa port. This is one of his more mild poses over a 2 hour period. Figured, I would spare you the details of his upside down preying mantis pose.

Doo Doo, Donuts & Jerusalem

On wednesday, we were told it was a 10 minute walk to the bus station, so naturally, we left with 10 minutes until an hourly bus to Jerusalem was to leave. A 12 minute jog later (with a few sprints thrown in much to Dania’s displeasure), I flag down a bus coming out of the terminal hoping it is ours. Wrong bus. The driver points and says something in Hebrew. I run into where the buses come out (instead of the pedestrian entrance all the way around the building) and flag down the next bus pulling out. The driver was shocked, but it was the “Yerushaliam” bus, and on we got. It sure beat sitting in the terminal for an hour.

After arriving in Jerusalem, our first stop was at David (aka Dudu) Gerstein’s studio. Dudu is an artist extraordinaire that Dania’s dad met 30 years ago while traveling in Rome. They have kept in touch, and Dudu made us a beautiful custom made ketubah (marriage contract) for our wedding. He showed us around the studio, talked about his works and career, and gave me some interesting career advice. www.davidgerstein.com

We then proceeded to wander the streets of Jerusalem until my sneakers ripped. We went on a (fun) wild goose chase tracking down a shoe repair shop. In the process, we stumbled on a giant menorah lighting in the middle of Jerusalem. This one involved 3 orthodox rabbis in – get this – a bucket attached to a crane. See pic. After the lighting, the soofgonioat came out. Soofgoniot are special Israeli donuts. An orthie opened a station wagon with boxes, and I mean boxes, of soofgoniot to give out. Madness ensued, as elbows flew to get a free soofgoniot or two.

After this, we went to the ultra orthodox neighborhood next to the old city called Mea Sharim to look at scads of menorahs burning eerily in the windows along dimly lit ancient streets. We heard loud music coming from around a corner. We followed it and found a glowing party bus in front of a mass of young orthodox boys with glowing toy swords. We were then yelled at by an orthie telling us that we should not be there and that Dania was not dressed appropriately. We left, wandered into the old city, stopped in a hostel to warm ourselves, and then joined Dania’s cousins for a late dinner. Vat a day!

Chanukah O Chanukah

We spent most of the day running around with Dania's cousin, Nir. 70 degrees & sunny is a nice change from cold Paris.

We each bought a pair of Naots (probably the most comfortable sandals on the planet) and managed to entertain the sales clerk at the same time - see bottom pic.

Later this evening, we happened upon a gianormous Chanukah menorah lighting. As you can tell from the pic (top), I fit right in with the orthodox Jews dancing their jig!

We Met Georgik Braunschweig!

Before you ask who Georgik is, take a look at the pic. Quite a creative mind. Maybe even a little more creative than moi? Comments and interpretations most certainly welcome...

We met Georgik while sitting near him at an excellent Thai restaurant in Paris. He emailed me a link to his work. Apparently, this one is exhibited in the Pompidou Center - the MoMa of Paris.

Off to Israel tomorrow. Au revoir Paris and shalom Tel Aviv!

500 Moto Santas

So we've been doing the usual Paris shtuff... Notre dame, louvre, musee d'orsay, sacre couer, romantic honeymoon walks along the Seine, yadda yadda. Tonight after walking along the Champs Elysee in the freezing cold, we encountered a swarm of moto santas revving their engines for a night out on the town. We spoke to a few of them and found that this is an annual one night only event where 500+ motorists from all over France coordinate over the internet to dress like santas and zoom zoom zoom all over Paris. I almost got run over by a reindee - er moto santa, but the attached pics were worth it. Right?

Oh, I ate 3 chocolate croissants this morning!

Une bouteille de champagne

Frenchies just LOVE French speaking Americans. We start talking in French with one of the Air France flight attendants - really cool guy who ended up taking care of us the whole flight. When he found out we were newly married, he gave us a nice bottle of champagne. At one point during a particularly good conversation, he asked us to follow him to the front of the plane. For a second I thought we had scored some left over business class seats. No such luck.

As usual, the sleep afforded by a wall leaning window seat beat out the easy access of an aisle seat. I taught Dania my the acrobatics needed to jump over a sleeping person (or two) using the arm rests. It’s always funny to see the people’s expressions behind me.