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…