good news

We have a house! They signed the contract today and will hopefully have it furnished so we can move in sometime next week. Right now we are still living in the hotel in Tel Aviv. The maid cleans daily. We drop the laundry off once a week. Eat out two meals a day. I guess I'm not cut out for this posh lifestyle because I will be thrilled to cook and clean again!

We've experienced so much already and I've been slacking on my note taking so it's hard to figure out where to begin. I guess I'll start with our sight seeing...

Caesarea -- Is on the Mediterranean coast north of Tel Aviv. It was built by King Herod around 20 BC and was the capital of Judea during Jesus' time. Has a theater, aqueducts, hippodrome, bathhouse, amphitheater, synagogue as well as fortifications built by the Crusaders. (The Crusaders stuff is relatively new. Only a paltry 900 years old instead of 2000 like the rest of the ruins.) The place is fabulous! Very open, lots to see, very little barricaded off. We need to go back when we have strollers/back carriers for the kiddos because it's too extensive for them to walk the whole way. Also we had a minor incident with Alejandro removing a small boulder from one of the walls of the hippodrome. The wall had lasted over 2000 years, and our son was tearing it down in the split second we had turned our backs. Anyhow, we got to see some gorgeous Roman ruins just in case we never make it to Italy .
Capernaum and the Sea of Galilee -- Capernaum was where Jesus "recruited" many of the apostles and spent time preaching. The town is just ruins that were excavated by Franciscan monks the first six decades of the last century. There are several houses including that of St. Peter as well as the synagogue from the time. It's quiet and peaceful and I found the trip much more meaningful than our visit to Jerusalem . Jerusalem is a living city and has changed so much from the time of Jesus. Capernaum helps one imagine life at His time. Of course the significance was lost on the kids as Dante played in the gravel the whole time while Alejandro investigated every crevice in the walls with sticks. The Sea of Galilee (which is not a sea -- it's a fresh water lake) is in northeast Israel . It's green and lush and reminded us of Ireland . We stopped and let the kids go swimming but they fussed about the gravel shoreline instead of the soft sand they've become accustomed to at the beach in Tel Aviv. The whole walking on water thing didn't work for us. Unfortunately we had left the camera at a friend's house the night before, so we have video but no pictures.

Purim -- Purim is more of a national holiday than a religious one. It is to celebrate the Jews' deliverance from the Persian plot to kill them recorded in the Book of Esther. People dress in costumes similar to Halloween but only those of a playful nature -- nothing scary allowed. (I really don't understand the concept of the masquerade because there are no disguises in the Book of Esther.) Anyhow, we went to a Purim "parade." I am reluctant to perpetuate this misnomer about calling it a "parade" because it was stationary -- with little stages and booths setup where people in costumes put on skits. The crowd had to do all the walking. We didn't have costumes for the kids but they enjoyed seeing everyone else dressed up.
Easter -- We weren't brave enough to take on all the droves of tourists that come this time in Jerusalem , so we just went to church in Tel Aviv. Then we gathered with four other American families for dinner. I had never had chili cheese hotdogs and green chile stew for Easter dinner before, but there's a first for everything. (The green chiles were leftovers for someone's stash from Hatch NM -- we haven't found anything for a close substitute yet.) The kids played on the slip'n'slide and had an egg hunt in their bathing suits -- another first.
Terrain -- Israel is so tiny but it offers so many different sceneries. We'll start driving from the beach, sandy desert, head into plains with olive trees and citrus groves, highly irrigated farmland, next we are headed up wooded mountains in just an hour's drive. Then up north we found cliffs, bluffs and grassy hillsides where sheep and cows graze. Plus, just watch out the window and you'll pass ruins everywhere along the way. There are so many different types of architecture because this land has been conquered by the just about everybody and their brother -- Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Ottomans and the British.

Children -- It's not uncommon to see an Israeli man pick up a strange baby and just gush over the little one. Israelis delight in seeing children and love to spoil them. Dante loves to flirt but is not comfortable with strangers trying to touch him. As we've been dining out so frequently, Alejandro wants to run around and entertain whoever will pay any attention to him. While in the States, people might smile and say hello to a child, they eventually want to be left to dine in peace. Here they are thrilled to keep the child's attention for so long and Alejandro is thrilled to have an audience. As I'm desperately trying to keep Dante from picking up litter on our walk to the beach, Alejandro is busy collecting cookies and candy from shop owners and passersby. The whole don't take candy from strangers approach doesn't work so well here.
All the little things -- Like the rest of the world, Israel uses the metric system. It's been a long time since I've stepped on a scale and it read in the 60s. (Kilograms instead of pounds, of course.) On Easter, it was 42 degrees (unfortunately that was in Celsius which made it a whopping 107 Fahrenheit! It's only March!) They use military time instead of am/pm. The currency is the shekel which is worth about 3.4 shekels/ US dollar. Just six months ago, it was 4.2 shekels per dollar. Since Alfonso is getting paid in dollars, we've lost 20% of our purchasing power. Oh, did I mention everything is crazy expensive? Gas and milk are both over $7/gallon (if you do the conversions -- they only sell liters here.) They only things we have found cheaper here are flowers and avocados.

Anyhow, that's enough for now. I don't want to bore you all to death and end up with everyone setting up an auto-delete for my emails. We are really excited to be here and are really looking forward to these next two years.
Love always,
debi

greetings from Israel

So over a year after we made the decision to come, our family finally arrived in Israel. The boys did well enough on the flight (Dante slept 10 out of the 12 hours bless his soul) but the following jet lag to adjust to the time difference made for a painful week. Just as things started to get better, the boys got sick. Fevers, vomiting, stuck in a hotel -- complete deja vu of Phoenix. Dante's illness was short lived but Alejandro is determined to be as miserable as possible. Finally took him to the doctor this morning and he has an ear infection on top of a viral infection. Poor little guy.

Anyhow, so we've been in a hotel in Tel Aviv (an hour commute for Alfonso) the whole time with little prospect of getting a house. Today the announcement came that the company Intel contracted to help us get a house has basically gone on strike. Intel and the contracted company are both accusing the other of not living up to their end of the contract, Intel stopped payments and the other company stopped working (although they weren't working very well to begin with.) Who knows how long it will take for them to work things out. In the mean time, we are "stranded" in a fancy hotel, just two blocks from the beach. While it would be nice to have a washer/dryer and a kitchen that consisted of more than a mini-fridge and microwave, we are together and getting lots of support from Alfonso's co-workers.

Right now, email is the best way to get in touch. We'll have a U.S. number but not til we get into a house. For those interested, there's free software called Skype which we use with to video call. But you can use it without a camera. As long as your computer has a microphone and speakers we'll be able to talk. My skype name is debiconrad. Just keep in mind the time difference. We are 7 hours ahead of EST and 9 hours ahead of MST. (Well, it will be once Israel switches to daylight savings time. We don't switch until the 28th for some reason.)

Well, I'll send another update with all our experiences later. Anyhow, we are here and fine.

Miss you and love you,
debi

house hunting

Alfonso and I went on our house hunting trip in Israel from Feb 2- Feb 8th. The housing market is really tight right now and there weren't that many options. We found out last week that the relocation company was unable to secure a contract with either house in which we were interested. So Intel will put us up in a hotel until we find a house and the relo company can secure a contract and get it furnished. I'm hoping we aren't in a hotel any more than a month. I'm sure it will pass quickly and the boys and I will find lots of ways to entertain ourselves. No problem. (What I'm really thinking: A hotel for a month!! Two toddlers!! Help! Help!)

The boys were fine and dandy at my parents' house during our trip and only cried when we would call on Skype (video call on the computer.) Out of sight out of mind. They were happy to see us when we came back so that's all that matters. Alejandro came running at me full force and just about leveled me. Alfonso is back in Phoenix until the end of the month while the boys and I are staying in Ohio. The move date for Israel is still March 1st.

Besides our fruitless days spent searching for a house, we were able to do a bit of sight seeing. We stayed in Tel-Aviv which is right on the Mediterranean coast. The weather was similar to Phoenix. We'd need a light jacket in the mornings and evenings but it got toasty mid-day. Monday we went up to Haifa which is an hour north of Tel Aviv, also on the coast and went to the Baha'i Shrine and Gardens. Wednesday we went to Jerusalem. Traffic was worse there than anywhere where else. The Old City is just a maze and we mistakenly thought we'd be able to navigate with just a map. We wandered around lost, forever asking for directions. If someone hadn't offered to take us to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (built around Christ's tomb) we would probably still be looking for it now.

This might be a bit long winded for some of you -- but I'm going to try to capture a bit of our experience over the next two years.

Observations, opinions, odds and ends

Language -- Contrary to everything we'd been told, everyone does not speak English. Many people know some level of English but not necessarily fluently. In most cases, there was at least one person around they could bring over to help us. The state languages are Hebrew and Arabic. In Jerusalem, we were trying to avoid being harassed by everyone trying to sell us things so we started conversing in Spanish. We made it half a block before someone came over hawking his services in Spanish.

Food -- We ate out the whole time and never had a bad meal. Of course since Intel was footing the bill, we dined at some fancy-shamsy places that we'll never set foot in again (especially with the little guys in tow.) The food is very flavorful but not spicy in the hot sense that we were accustomed to in New Mexico. We ordered burritos at one place that we labeled as spicy -- but it tasted more like a sweet bbq sauce than anything. They pickle everything! We tried pickled carrots and lemon rinds (I'm not a fan.) People raved about the pickled watermelon but we never had the opportunity to try it. We never made it to a grocery store -- so we shall see what that holds in store for us.

Traffic -- Insane. The drivers call themselves "aggressive." It's a free for all. People cut each other off like crazy, motorcycles weave in and out between lanes of traffic (if you can call them lanes -- people drive wherever they feel like it.) They park on shoulders and sidewalks and in the middle of the road if they can't find a parking spot and have a quick errand to run. Israelis live to honk their horns, not if someone cuts them off. No, usually when the traffic is stopped and there's nothing anyone can do but wait -- they just lean on the horn the whole time until traffic clears. Also, the traffic signals work a little differently. When the light is red, the yellow light comes on (while the red is still on) to let you know it's about to turn green. So if you don't start driving when the yellow comes on, they start honking. Sometimes they start honking before the yellow even comes on to let you know that it's about to turn yellow.

Smoking -- Apparently there's no Israeli surgeon general warning on all of the cigarettes because people there are smoking fiends! I foresee a huge lung cancer epidemic hitting the country in the next few decades.

Litter bugs -- Trash, trash, and more trash. People throw stuff right in front of you with absolutely no shame. There's litter everywhere. We walk out of this fancy five star restaurant and it's like walking into a dumpster. The contrast is hard to fathom. It's on the beach, parks, religious sites even (well, not the Baha'i gardens) but people have no respect for the environment. The smaller communities aren't as bad (not as many people to litter.) This is one of the hardest things for me to accept because it was such a shock to me (and I'm a neat freak -- not as bad since I've had kids but still a neat freak at heart.)

Random Encounters -- The best part of this adventure is all the people. While most Israelis appear a bit unapproachable at first, they are very warm hearted and happy to help. Everyone has a story to tell if you have the time to listen. Here are a few of the people we came across.

Mira -- When walking around in Haifa, Alfonso noticed a woman sitting in a car with a flat tire and offered to help. She looks at him and says "You are not Israeli. An Israeli man wouldn't help. He wouldn't even look at you." (Alfonso speaking english may also tipped her off to his citizenship.) She declined his offer as she'd already called for help. Later she drove by and gave us her phone number and insisted we come to her home to eat when we move next month.

Dorthy -- Met at the Baha'i gardens. She's originally from the States, her husband escaped from Poland when he was four but the rest of his family died in the concentration camps. They now live in Haifa and are activists for the occupied territories. She told a story about visiting Auschwitz and seeing the welcome sign that says "Arbeit macht frei" which means "Work liberates." While it is a nice slogan, it is a terrible thing to say when nothing could be further from the truth. She said it's the same going into Bethlehem in the West Bank there's a sign that says "Peace be with you" but the people there are living in violence, strife and no means of escape.

Zachi -- A Muslim tour guide we met inside Jaffa Gate at the Old City in Jerusalem. His cousin owns a souvenir shop on David Street. Talked about how Jews and Muslims are brothers because they both call Abraham father. "The trouble lies in Israel welcoming "foreign" Jews to come, have land, and make a living but the Palestinians whose homes were here have lost their land and can not make a living." He was very kind and very funny. After exchanging some witty banter, he turns to Alfonso and offers "a million camels for your wife."

Josh -- A photo journalist from Philadelphia that moved to Israel in 1985. He goes to the Old City daily and likes to talk to people and find out their stories. He also helps people find their way around but not for pay because he won't pay 22,000 shekels to become an official tour guide. When we met him, he was in jeans and a ball cap but he says he often dons Arab garb to go into East Jerusalem and Occupied Palestine. He told us that the ladder at the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not there for restorations. It has been there for over 200 years when the Byzantines had control of the church and the Turks used the ladder to smuggle food into those trapped in the Church.

Levi -- His wife ran a food stand out of their garage in one of the small moshavs (farming communities) when where we were looking for houses. She had to track Levi down to help us order because no one else spoke english. He was originally from Morocco. He worked construction and had helped build one of Intel's earlier fabs. They welcome us into the home and the wife started making extra "freebies" for us to try and take with us. When he heard we were looking for a house, he started making phone calls and drove us around to see other houses he knew of for rent.

Baha'i Shrine and Gardens. Baha'i is a relatively modern religion that believes "there is only one God, that there is only one human race, and that all the world’s religions represent stages in the revelation of God’s will and purpose for humanity." Anyhow, the gardens are very impressive -- absolutely impeccable.

Church of the Holy Sepulchre
We'll have to go again with a local or tour guide so we'll know what we are looking at.

less tenative move date

We have our mailing info in Arizona but, I don't know if you want to bother penciling it in -- maybe use disappearing ink because we won't be here long. It's a shame because we just settled in and I like this apartment a lot better than the one in Portland. It feels a bit like a fishbowl because we are on the first floor and get lots of pedestrian traffic that like to peer in and check out what trouble the kids are up to.

We finally have a move date to Israel that's less likely to change than before only in the sense that Intel finally let us book our tickets. The movers are packing our stuff Jan 30th since it takes 6-8 weeks to get there by boat. We fly Feb 1st to Ohio and leave the kiddos with my parents while Alfonso and I go on a house hunting trip for a week. Then I'll stay with the boys in Ohio since we won't have most of the toys/books/etc.. Alfonso has to come back to Arizona to work for three weeks. Then he'll fly to Ohio Feb 29th and we'll all leave together for Israel on March 1st. Alfonso's mother was able to come for a week to visit before the next round of chaos ensues. (Alejandro and Alfonso are picking her up at the airport right now.)
Anyhow, the boys are doing well enough. The moving has been a little hard on them. We were in a hotel for two weeks, at my parents for three weeks, now we've been here three with one more to go. It messes up nap schedules and Alejandro wakes up crying in the middle of the night. Once they settle down, we leave again and start all over. But they are resilient little guys. Dante hit a growth spurt and is quickly catching up with Alejandro. They've been accused of being twins twice in the past two days. Alejandro still has about 2-3 inches and ten pounds on his little brother though. They play really well together when they aren't fighting. The other morning, they were playing with a wooden train they got for Christmas. Dante brought pieces to his brother one by one and Alejandro would say "thank you" for each piece as he assembled the track. But by afternoon, Alejandro didn't want to share and Dante destroyed the track just to make Alejandro mad.
Alejandro knows most of his letters and is working on material for a book as soon as he learns how to write. The title will be "1001 Ways to Procrastinate at Bedtime and Drive your Parents Crazy." Dante played tattletale for the first time yesterday. He comes running in tears (while Alejandro was hiding his face so I already had an idea of what happened.) He tells me, "Ale.. (incomprehensible blubbering) push me." (more sobbing) I discovered a miracle cure for his malady though. As soon as I disciplined Alejandro, Dante's tears dried up and he smiled as he jumped up to play. Such joy at getting his brother in trouble.

Well, I'll keep you updated with the progress of our move. The whole thing feels very anti-climatic as we made the decision to go to Israel over a year ago. We enjoyed our time in the Pacific Northwest. I can't complain much about living in Phoenix for the winter. But I'm tired of moving and ready to go back to Albuquerque. Seriously, once our things arrive and we get settled in Israel, I'll be fine. So April is looking really nice about now.

Love always,
debi

"new" address for december

Well, the moving company is coming to pack and load tomorrow. Then we fly to Phoenix on Friday. Our apartment won't be ready until Dec 16th so we'll be living in a hotel for a while. The boys are I are headed to Ohio Dec 12th so we won't even see the apt until after new years.
For those ambitious enough to send Christmas cards, feel free to send them to my parents' house since we don't have an address as of now and will be there most of the month anyhow. Anyhow, we are doing well enough. Alejandro kept threatening to cancel his birthday party because he has a Peter Pan complex and doesn't want to grow up. Dante has morphed into a book worm. His first sentence was "Read that book now." Demanding little fellow. Stories about flushing training pants and our trip our Mount St. Helen's (I got to fly the plane!) will have to wait for another day because I need to finishing packing.

Love always,
debi

moving sometime somewhere i think maybe

I'd been trying to wait until we knew what our plans were before sending an update. After three weeks of waiting to get some resolution from Intel, I decided to just send a message. We won't be going to Israel until at least April. Supposedly we'll be moving to Phoenix but we aren't exactly sure when that will happen (sometime between next week and April.) Hopefully we'll still be able to go to Ohio for Christmas but there are no guarantees of anything besides the certainty that Intel will change the schedule again.
Anyhow, we are doing well in Oregon. After three weeks of rain (when we had company), the weather has been gorgeous the last few weeks. A bit cool, but blue skies and sunshine. The boys are both doing their best to keep life interesting. After Alejandro mastered the rock wall at the park, he attempted to climb "Mount Dresser" during his nap time which toppled over and pinned his legs. I heard the crash and was up the stairs before the shock and pain had a chance to set in. Of course in the few milliseconds of silence before the tears, I had presumed the worst and six hairs turned white. Since then he just empties his dresser to make a mountain out of his clothes. Alejandro wanted to carve an anatomically correct pumpkin because he insisted everyone needed to know it was a boy pumpkin, not a girl one. He really enjoyed trick-or-treating and thought we could go again on November 1st because some people still might have candy. He's become very independent and needs to do everything by himself. He helped himself to a blackberry milkshake as you can see below. Apparently. Alfonso's English still needs some work because when I said "Quick! Bring a towel!" he came running with the camera.
Dante's vocab has really taken off the past couple weeks. He points to and says all the parts of the face by name (all in English, a few in Spanish) but it is a bit hazardous when he gets to eyes. I honestly believe he's trying to pop mine out of their sockets. He's learning to share and take turns and follows Alejandro around trying to give him things. It's really quite sweet. He hasn't quite mastered Alejandro's name so he calls him "brother" instead. He loves to play chase and I'm exhausted way before he ever gets bored. But his new favorite game is flipping on and off the lights now that he can reach the switches. Dante is also climbing and jumping/falling/rolling/sliding off of the couch/bed/table/toy box. Anyone want to take a guess on how many trips to the emergency room I'll be making in the next ten years?
love always,
debi

starting to rain again :(

Dante started sleeping through the night, so we stuck him in his own room which happens to be the same place the computer calls home. So the only time when I'm free to use the computer (when Dante is sleeping) the room is occupied. Such is life. Anyhow, we have company now and the boys have been sharing a room the past few nights. They wake each other up at the crack of dawn but otherwise it's going well enough.
Time just flies by these days. Dante's birthday came and went. The baby days are long gone. He's signing like crazy and he climbs up, over and into everything! He's very astute and puts his powers of observations to good use by finding what buttons to press to drive people crazy. When he's not too happy with his brother, Dante will go and get Alejandro's most cherished stuffed duck, wave it in Alejandro's face and take off running. With me, he just spits and then smiles at me. The boys go between fighting over toys and beating on each other to giggling and hugging and kissing within a blink of the eye. I try to ignore as much as I can unless someone's life or limb is in peril.
Alejandro has turned into quite the little person with his own opinions, reasoning and observations. "I know it wasn't nice to hit Elijah, but he hit me first and that wasn't nice either." "I'm not tired yet but how about I watch a movie and then I'll go to bed. Okay? Good." He loves to help. But you have to be careful when letting him help you put produce away because he likes to try a bite of all the fruits to see which one he really wants. It's really sweet to watch him read stories to Dante though. He uses different voices for different characters and everything. He loves to re-enact incidents, especially when he was getting in trouble but he makes them these big dramatic experiences. Some friends watched the kiddos one night and the next morning Alejandro tells me "When we were brushing teeth, Mister Jay said 'No, no, no. You stick that tongue back in your mouth.' And then Miss Hettie said 'No, no, no. You be quiet because your brother is trying to sleep.'" Apparently everyone waves their finger when they says 'No, no, no' which is funny because I don't know anyone that has ever done that to him.
As a family, we finally started going on more trips now that the summer is nearing an end. Visited friends from college in Seattle, went to Mount St Helen's and Crater Lake. Tentatively, we are still headed to Israel after Christmas but Friday they announced the schedule was pushed out another 10 weeks, so we may end up here until March. Who knows?
Love always,
debi