At the Marine Ball
Last night was our first Marine Ball and it was so fun! Everyone was all dressed up and looking good, plus there was a fantastic band. It was held at a hotel, not far down the beach from us, so we were able to walk there and back.
The Marines were handsome in their uniforms; I enjoyed the presentation of the colors, and the observance of other traditions: cutting a cake with a sword, and the oldest Marine (57) passing a slice to the youngest Marine (21) to symbolize passing knowledge from one generation to the next; the table left empty to remember those who died. All very moving. Click here for more photos.
Thursday was Veteran’s Day and we had the day off. John and I set out fairly early to explore other parts of the city near us. We walked up Dizengoff and back down Ben Yehuda. I got to go inside the lobby of the restored Esther Cinema, now the Cinema Hotel, a beautiful old Bauhaus building (Tel Aviv has the largest concentration of Bauhaus style architecture in the world, and is a World Heritage Site).
While we were out, we stopped for brunch and had shakshouka – eggs poached in tomato sauce, usually with eggplant and cheese.
Work was busy, as usual, with some interesting cases. I got to help the ACS unit, going with a young American woman to a local bank to get money her mother had sent her.
The rest of the week was pretty normal. We watched “The Girl Who Played with Fire,” which was excellent, and a couple other movies, including “Iron Man 2” (fun). I re-read Tom Perrotta’s “Little Children” yesterday.
I found out that the odd bird in last week’s blog is the state bird of Israel, the hoopoe (pronounced hoo-poo).