John with Daphne at Meghan's BBQ
We are starting to feel like we are in the final stretch here. John’s Hebrew test is next Friday; we changed teachers this week and our new veteran teacher is focusing on the test, which is good. I’ll still have another three weeks of Hebrew while John is in political/economic tradecraft training to prepare for his job working for the Ambassador.
We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon on Meghan’s back deck in Maryland, at her father’s house. It was wonderful to sit outside and we had a great BBQ lunch. I really enjoyed visiting with her dad, a Navy doctor who specialized in maladies associated with diving. (It’s funny to me that I guess I’ve reached the age where I have more in common with our young friends’ parents!) They have a wonderful house, filled with art from his travels around the world. And, I ate a delicious tomato from his garden…yum…nothing better (although not as good as Aunt Gusta’s!).
We’ve started our rounds of consultations, where we meet with various people who work on Israeli issues. That means wearing a dress or suit instead of capri pants, and going downtown to the main offices for the morning or afternoon.
Friday afternoon after work, we made a trip to the mall to buy shoes for John, then came home and watched an excellent Israeli movie, Ajami. (Slow, but the ending was worth it).
Saturday morning I drove up to Maryland for a hair appointment and stocked up on a few things from the nearby Sam’s. That night, John treated me to an excellent steak dinner in downtown DC – we’re making a point to have some good dinners before we leave, because steak is so expensive in Israel! We went to Smith & Wollensky’s – really good, and it was a beautiful night to be out and about.
I wanted to share this great link – John’s cousin Jeff works at an animal park in Arizona and got some recent news coverage.