Some tidbits about Israel and my life here so far

The intersections in Israel are named. This means that when you are given driving directions, you are not told take this exit and turn right – but rather – at this intersection, turn right. It’s a different perspective for sure.
Uzy was denied his work visa for the U.K. a couple of weeks ago.
I have moved into my new apartment which is nice and simple. It has come completely stocked, that is dishes, blankets, towels, internet, etc. the kitchen stuff is subpar and I get angry every time I cut with the knife. Anger management my friends, anger management.
Chocolate milk, shoko, comes in little bags at the store. Milk does as well. Now you may ask what do you do with the milk once you have opened it since? No worries, great minds have solved this problem.

My social life has not been what I had expected or hoped. It’s more starting from scratch with bits of pieces of seeing old friends every now and then. It has been disappointing and difficult at times.
Uzy spoke to the British counsel and expressed his displeasure (probably loudly and strongly) with the entire visa thing (I imagine the counsel was quite scared). Actually, its quite ridiculous, he travels a lot hence couldn’t send his passport to them but rather a copy. Further, he is required to take an English exam even though he has over 70 publications (some solo) in English. Finally, any question he has costs him money to ask (i.e. a 1-900 number). He appealed his visa denial.
While the rest of the world seems to be enjoying extremely cold weather, it has been amazingly spring-like here. My favorite childhood flowers (kalaniot כלניות) are out in bloom from the little rain they did receive.

I begin my mornings with an orange I pick from the orchards near the physics building. I have recently discovered a new path from my apartment to the building which passes under a bunch of pecan trees (very tall pecan trees). This has created an interesting competition between me, old Russian ladies that come by and collect and random eclectic birds (any other way to describe birds that pick unshelled pecans of the concrete?).
Last week Uzy received an answer to his visa appeal.
I joined a dating site, to see what its like and to have fun after Rami told me of the girl he is seeing and how he met her (this site…). I had some lady friends browse around and look at guys’ profile on the site so that they could help me shape my own profile well. I was then surprised when the site kept on suggesting different guys for me to look at…
It snowed in Cardiff.
My mom took me to buy shoes, nice shoes. I got two pairs. I get complements about the pair I wear. I think my mom took me because of the sandals blog…
My roommate is Austrian and kind of weird. He is spending his second year here as a visiting researcher. (this is the apartment building, my room is top left)

It turns out I have a relative in the office diagonally from me (she hasn’t been there so far). She is my mom’s second cousin (is that right? My mom’s aunt’s daughter’s daughter). I also have another relative of sorts essentially in the office below mine – he is my aunt’s (mom’s sister) husband’s brother’s son. The connection to this relation was, of course, made by my grandmother. Granma power!! Yoav is amazingly nice and had me over to his house for dinner and more importantly, to meet his wife and two beautiful daughters. Their story is amazing – they were pen-pals when they were 12 and then again when they were 16 and have been together since 16 ½!!! (pen-pals??? Talk about extinct social behaviors!)
The entire family (mom, dad, sister from States) was here for a while. It was magical and so nice. Now its, again, just my brother and I. With the rest of the fam of course…

shiduchim - שידוכים

mathchmake matchmaker, make me a match. find me a find, catch me a catch...

i haven't been learning the fiddle, nor standing on the roof, and definitely not doing both of them at the same time (though i do walk around playing my harmonica, gathering many a strange looks from passerbys yet garnering much impressed respect from the drunk), but the matchmakers of the country have come out in full force. they come from both sides of the family, they come young and young at heart, they come with numbers, they come with titles, they come with offers. not quite fiddler on the roof style, but maybe fitting for the (now) second decade of the 21st.

after a week in israel i have a number with promises of more coming (and they came, and are still coming). my brother is entitled to a number as well and he sets up his blind date before me. i on the other hand have a bit of hard time catching mine. my aunt who supplied the numbers asks if i called, and i say i have but that i haven't been able to catch the lady. a couple of days later, i get a phone call, from the lady. the chain of events went as follows - my aunt told her aunt (whom i have never met, or at least don't remember meeting - but i am related to, pssssssheeeeeeew) that i tried and couldn't get a hold of the girl, then this aunt told her best friend who is the mom of the lady. the point of this is null. or maybe... that i didn't know the person making the connection and that my aunt never saw, nor even talked to the girl.

the phone conversations flow, flow well even. the girl, shelly (means mine), is a social worker and likes asking questions. this was good. the first question i asked? where do you live? and yes, she made fun of me for it... naturally there had to be a small goofed up moment. so after the conversation, which went through a variety of topics, ended 40 minutes or so later, i hadn't made a plan with her, but was left with - call me when you are ready to make a plan.

oy.

tov, i called two days later and we met friday night. and it went all right, nothing exciting, and nothing particularly negative stood out. these things are awkward, that's all i know. and i also know that its really hard to know afterwards. at least for me. we met at a cafe/pub and ordered, well, yes, beer. after my second, and her finishing her first, about an hour and a half later, she left pretty quickly. there was no 'summary' of the evening, or a window for the future. i think more than anything, this is what discouraged me at the end. she kind of had to go - to sleep or something, or maybe to avoid the strange moment of how do we say goodbye at the end. the ending was amazingly quick. and well, i didn't feel a particular click, but maybe i would have tried another meeting? i don't know.

spoke to my brother about his date. of course i spoke, he was questioned through and through by everyone, including my grandma's plants. he said that it was all right - except that she kept on reminding him of his roommate. looked just like his roommate the intention was. now if his roommate was bar refaely or zooey deschanel then you'd say sababa. but his roommate, while very good looking, is his male roommate... is there a point? i am not sure. maybe that there is very little filtering with this blind date stuff.

i essentially decided that i wasn't interested in doing blind any longer. first reason is i am looking but not that actively. i am interested in laying the framework myself in a way. second, well, if someone knew me, knew the girl and said - hey, good matchup, that's a different story. but just random numbers? i know enough peeps in the math/physics world that can generate me many a random number...

my cousin's wife's mom though is a very good matchmaker i hear. and she spoke to my mom a week or so ago and came back to her with a number and some theory about how these things work and completely convinced my mom, who then spoke to me, and then yesterday i saw my cousin's wife who urged me that her mom is good and has a place guaranteed in heaven (three matches which come into fruit, i.e. vows) and well, at this point i am just trying to continue this run on sentence as long as i can as i don't really have anything to add... but this girl just came back from a phd program in the u.s. so in a sense there are some commonalities there and while she probably left for the u.s. for her grad program, maybe her b.a., and i left a bit earlier, you know, the time preceding the deepening of my voice, and some other changes that happen during junior high taht are not appropriate for this kind of blog... maybe we'll have some things to talk about returning to this holycrazy place. so maybe this will make sense.

was there ever a point???