big YAY for an awesome weekend

My new room -- complete with funky sheets (courtesy of a birthday present from Riki & Oren)


Our fun new shower curtain


The view out of our mirpeset sheirut (balcony outside of our kitchen) -- looking out onto all the other balconies. And there's a few really cute cats. It's like they have their own little kibbutz. :-)
















The odd looking house/building/out of use factory on our street. We've done wonders with our imagination thinking about what it may have been used for...


A little bit makeshift in terms of furniture -- but it was awesome to eat our first meal on the balcony of our new place!











Wow, so many great (and tiring) things happened between Thursday evening and last night... from the beginning:

Thursday evening my second cousin Dvir had a moving guy come and the two of them carried a huge desk, a bed, a bookshelf, a nice big table for the living room, another big table/stand for the TV, a stereo system, and a big box of kitchen stuff. First of all, I'm still in shock in how great things worked out with him leaving for the States and my needing furniture -- not to mention how he and his girlfriend Chen have been so awesome about delivering it all :-) Sometimes, the world just gives you a big hug and says, here you go.

Friday morning began with going to Ishay's (bro-in-law) parent's (Arie & Shula) house in Ramat Gan to -- well -- clean out their storage closet of all the extra kitchen stuff they have from various places, apartments, etc. We filled the car up will enough pots and pans, cups, plates and other necessary items to start a catering business and made our way to the apartment. Sivan had already managed to have the movers download into the van from her old Nordau/Dizengoff apartment and upload into our new place by the time I got there, so she helped bring all the stuff from the car up the three flights of stairs. Moving is a good way to get in shape if anyone wants to know...

After all that, Dvir's girlfriend, Chen, and a friend of theirs, Ben, came over with their nice big TV (apparently the heaviest one ever made, according to Ben, the one who had to lug it up the stairs) and a microwave (which should be operational in the near future).

Soon after that we were off to southern TLV to order our big closets/dressers. It took walking up and down the street a few times to figure out where we were, if we walked by the place already, and who would give us the best deal, but eventually we managed to order nice big closet dressers from a semi-deaf but very concerned and nice old man. They should be coming sometime this week -- until then I'll be living out the suitcases (it's a good thing this doesn't phase me too much at this point).

Some pasta and salad for lunch later, we went and bought necessary bathroom items (see above very cute shower curtain), and managed to run back to the apartment on time for the arrival of our new fridge! He's pretty slim, but well-built, a little shorter than me, but overall really attractive. I think we're going to have a lovely relationship really. We've already managed to fill him up a bit too so he doesn't have any self-esteem problems. riiight. (she's gone off the deep end folks...)

So...yeah. Fridge, cleaning, hanging out, and then off we went with Tiferet to watch the Maccabi basketball game, followed by a yummy dinner and ice cream from the Gelatteria next to Tif and Idan's place. One of the best parts of the night was walking home with Sivan, it taking 20 minutes to do so, and going to sleep in the (same) new apartment :-)

Besides a couple points of waking up and being slightly confused, the first night was great, and I woke up and called Riki to see what the current status of "shnitzel"'s arrival in the the world is...she was having contractions but not too frequently or strongly, so it would be a while. Regardless I made my way to Petach Tikva, and filled up the car (again) with the rest (or almost the rest) of my stuff there, plus some temporary furniture until we figure out what we're doing in that regard. A few hours later, after the hospital doctors told Riki to go home (she was only 1 and 1/2 centimeters dialated at the time) my uncle Suki and I drove back to Tel Aviv, unloaded the car and he left me to do some more setting up/cleaning.

Tiferet came over and Sivan came home and we went food shopping for the first time, followed by the cooking of our very first dinner :-) It was lovely (see pictures above) . I'm sure many more will follow in stride.

After that we took a late evening stroll, walked Tiferet home (it's amazing how many people are out at 11pm at night on Rothschild...in a good way) and made our way back to Nachmani. It was during this stroll that my mom (in the US) called me to tell me that Riki (my cousin HERE) had the baby. Oh the powers of Yahoo messenger...my uncle happened to be talking to my mom when they called to say she had the baby, so she found out before I did....not that I'm all that surprised. These things happen quite a bit with my family. It's ok, I'm getting used to being the last to know (not really, but i'll pretend).

It was also my brother's 18th birthday yesterday, so now he has to share it with our new little baby boy cousin...but he seems to be ok with that.

So BIG YAY for my new cousin who i'll meet today after work, and BIG YAY for the new apartment that I love love love and smile every time I think about it. Now people just need to come and visit ;-)

Ok, that's definitely way more than enough for now...more to follow soon I'm sure...

if you don't scrub that kitchen floor...

you ain't gonna rock 'n roll no more...

these were our best buddies...especially with all the piles of dirt and leaves out on the blacony :-)

a bathtub full of cleaning supplies...the bathtub was the cleanest thing in the apartment since they just put in a new one that day...


our very first lunch @ home!
the other picture is the "mirpeset sheirut" outside our kitchen

mmmmm...yummy.

we poured about 10 buckets of water throughout the apartment to get all the dust and dirt out...


riiight. well there were no "papers to take out" but we definitely took out the trash -- mostly bags full of sand and dust that clearly proved our theory about how often they cleaned that apartment!

It was good times...well, quite tiring, but overall we enjoyed making our apartment into a swimming pool with the "sponja" of a lifetime :-)

The difference between yesterday at 10am and when we left at 7:30 or so was amazing, and definitely necessary. We even had our first meal at the apartment, sitting on the porch.

Random funny things to note:
1) I ran after 50 sheckels that blew away in the wind during our lunch break -- right into the street with oncoming traffic. Luckily I realized it, quickly ran away, and even mangaged to catch up with my 50 sheckels as soon as all the cars went by. But it was pretty ridiculous scene to watch, and yet, coming from me, not all that surprising.
2) Our neighbor works at a coffee/bistro type place on the corner near out apartment and recognized us since her window looks out into our "mirpeset sheirut" (the little porch/balcony outside our kitchen) and I was like, oh, that's the one who had to listen to me sing myself silly while cleaning the kitchen for two hours... oops. She was very nice.
3) So it turns out that when you wash the floor in our apartment, there are two routes for the water to go -- one is in one balcony near the living room and the other from the balcony near the kitchen. We pushed all the water through the kitchen as to avoid making dirty what we just cleaned -- and in the process all the water goes out this little pipe and down to the ground three stories below. The only problem is that people hang their laundry out to dry exactly where the water falls and so the poor soul on the first floor who apparently washed his/her slippers and left them out to dry, will be unpleasantly surprised with the now EXTREMELY not clean water filled slippers...oops. we left a nice note and apologized so hopefully we haven't caused too much neighborly damage.

It's actually quite amazing the way things worked out. Despite the total mess that we were in with everything on Monday, by Wednesday evening everything was all set, including my sort of random but very cool cousin giving me his bed since he's moving to the states for a while -- the girl who lived in the apartment who was supposed to be leaving me her bed decided at the last minute that she was taking it, apparently.

By mid-next week we should be more or less in place -- this weekend will require lots of moving (more or less up and down the the stairwell in our building) and next week will require lots of buying (dresser, hopefully finding furniture for our living room, porch, etc.)

In the meantime I am back at work but totally exhausted...have a lot to do but not so much motivated to do it...maybe I'll even manage to sleep some sometime soon?

movin' right along

well, it's officially move-in week. Sivan and I have it all planned out...not that we expect that things will really go exactly according to how we want them to, but it's nice to think positively, no?

Tuesday - keys and buying cleaning supplies in the evening
Wednesday - cleaning...cleaning...some more cleaning, and if need be, more cleaning
Thursday - exterminator (after all, it is an old apt in Tel Aviv, better to be on the safe side)
Friday - moving most of the stuff in -- maybe painting if really needed
Saturday - resting, at least a little bit, invite over people who are supposidly bringing us furniture/other things for the apartment (a garage buy, rather than garage sale, as my co-worker put it)
Sunday evening - trip to IKEA
Monday - depending on trip to IKEA, buying little or lots of furniture from south tel aviv

and then lots and lots of random trips to places to buy things we need...it'll be a long process, but a fun one I think...it's my first time getting to really decorate my own place!

since the last time I wrote...

this past Friday we walked around on rachov Hertzl in Tel Aviv where they sell lots of furniture (much of it on the waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive and not even really my style kind of places) and we did manage to see some good deals on large dresser/closet type furniture, and some cute stores with fun accessories that we'll definitely come back for once we have a place to accessorize.

things otherwise have been going pretty well. This past weekend was very walking oriented -- lots of time with Tiferet and Sivan at Park H'yarkon, as well as walking around Namal Tel Aviv and the Dizengoff area of course. It's actually been quite warm out and last night was crazy weather with hot winds and sandstorms on the beaches in Tel Aviv. I've actually never even seen anything like it before here, and I think everyone was a little shocked.

I know Tel Aviv is not a big city, but i'm still always surprised at how often I run into someone I know, considering I don't really know that many people. Just this weekend I ran into my co-worker in the morning on Friday, then later that day I saw a couple that I met at Eyal's birthday party, then on Saturday I ran into Eyal's crew from Petach Tikva who I've known forever at this club/bar place in south Tel Aviv (I think it was called Blend but i don't remember). Well, it is a nice feeling -- makes me wonder what it will be like once I actually LIVE in Tel Aviv...in a good way.

Pesach, derech agav (by the way) was very nice here, especially having the time off to hang out and relax. although two less than great things resulted: 1) It made me really miss all the little things that happen at Pesach in CT -- quirks that just won't exist anywhere else and can't be replicated and 2) it makes getting back into the full week of work schedule pretty difficult. what can i say, i'm too busy daydreaming and thinking about the apartment to-do lists to really pay attention despite having quite a bit to do at work now...anyone want to provide some motivational thoughts? you know you do... knowing me i'll end up consulting despair.com for some words of wisdom.

lucky for me, i am taking this wednesday off to clean the apartment (which will be much harder than being at work, but FOR SURE more fun -- i even made a "cleaning mix" to blast on my iPod during the day) and then next week on Wednesday we have the day off for Yom Hatzma'ut (independence day). sweet. I'm actually really psyched to be here for it, I've always heard about fun parties and such in Tel Aviv, and now I'll be able to wander and enjoy and at the end of the night (morning?) come back to my very own place in the city.

que mas? Oh yeah, Riki is due this week so I keep checking my phone all day making sure there aren't any missed calls...it's a matter of days (maybe hours!?) till "schnitzel" will have a real name and a little doll face to match :-)

ahhh, i'm tiiiired. i should be wise and go to bed considering this week is going to be pretty nuts and tiring. the key words in that sentence being "should be." I think the next time I post I'll probably have pictures to post from the new place -- even if it's just gross horrible shots of sivan and i scrubbing the bathroom floor or something :-P Sounds enticing, doesn't it? I thought so as well.

tov...until next time...yala, bye.

Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end...

So here are some pictures from the windows at work -- it has a bluish tint because of the windows and I took them on a less than perfectly clear day (I took advantage of being alone in the office during daylight hours on Friday), but you get the idea I think.



Well, the word "closing" has taken on a new meaning in my life: a lot of work. The "first closing" of the Fund that me and my co-workers are currently working on has meant a lot of work and some extra hours, but overall it's been going well.

I have been daydreaming about my new apartment a lot and am really excited about it. Sivan and I are in the process of making a list of everything and then dividing it into things that we need to buy (ikea and south tel aviv, here we come), things friends and family are so very kindly donating to our cause, and things (does anyone else find it amusing that I currently have a mixer for my kitchen but not a dresser for clothes in my room)that maybe we can find through our good friend Homeless.co.il. We even had a brief discussion about the possibility of a cat once we're settled :-)

Not too much else to report at the moment. I'm excited for my first Pesach in Israel, I'll let you know how that goes.

l'hit,

goodbyes are like the bad taste of overly chewed gum

You know that it's going to run out of flavor and be unpleasant at the end, but the during part is great and definitely worth it.

My mom left for the airport a half hour ago. I won't lie, I started bawling my eyes out. Let's face it, I've never been good at goodbyes. It may even be at the top of the list of things I am not good at. I just have to look forward and a) realize that 6 months goes by like nothing these days b) that my aunt and cousins and sister and everyone will be here this summer which is REALLY close --- and like Gali said, even BEFORE all that, I get to move into my NEW APARTMENT!

We did have a really great time while she was here. We went to Sde Eliezar for the weekend two weekends ago and got a guided tour (courtesy of Dov and his brother Noam) of the area and nice places in Ramat haGolan, ate A LOT of good food, and just enjoyed being with the family. This past weekend we went to visit Miri and Ori in Tiv'on and a bunch of mom's friends from nursing school came over for dinner. The dinner itself was nothing less than exceptional, not that anyone found this surprising considering we were at Miri and Ori's house, and it was so fun and amusing to see my mom laugh it up about the "good ol' days" at Rothschild (nursing school). And now i have a face I will remember (i met most of these women last when i was 11 or younger) to go along with the names in the stories and phone calls I always hear about.

It's been birthday central around here -- Neta (15/3), me (26/3), Riki (29/3), Oren (2/4) so the atmosphere has been very celebratory and cake-filled. I received some great gifts including fun new sheets, a couple new books (including my first Israeli cookbook) and other such goodies. and that is all BESIDES the Superfarm/CVS my mom left for me, not to mention the towels and sheets and SHIRTS she brought and told me that whatever i wanted of all of it was here to stay. Basically, I am set for a good long time in terms of those things...now time to think about furniture!

Anyway...above are couple pictures from the visit -- our dinner of 16 people in the North when we stayed at Sde Eliezar, and Miri, Chen and my mom after brunch on Namal Tel Aviv -- the connection here is much slower than work so I'll upload pictures there later today perhaps.


More to come...