criplomats

 

Luckily there are several folks with cats in our building, so we help each other out with catsitting. This week was my turn to check in on Rob’s cats. I took a DVD that was made to entertain cats – it’s just birds jumping around and chirping. His two cats went nuts watching it! So funny.

This was a pretty quiet week. I went to happy hour with some folks Friday night, which was a lot of fun. Saturday I stayed in all day, watching movies and working on taxes.

I’m envious of John, who flew to Mountain Home for the long holiday weekend! Wish I could be there, too.

This week at work, I renewed a passport for a teenager who was born in Hot Springs, not something I see every day! Then later in the week, a gentleman from outside Little Rock passed away while on a tour here in Israel. I’ve been working with his widow on the phone and helping to sort things out to get him back home for burial – I think it’s some degree of comfort to her that I’m from her neck of the woods.

The weather here has been chilly and rainy for much of the week, and windy! You about get blown over from the wind coming off the ocean. I ventured out for Thai food at lunch today, then a quick stop at the grocery store – luckily I got home before it started raining too hard. This has definitely been more of a winter here than last year.

 

 

 

 

So Mom’s birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but better early than late! Happy birthday!

The week was a busy one. Last Sunday I went to brunch with neighbors Bill and Diane, Stacy, King and Michael. We walked down to Neve Tzedek and had a nice brunch at Dalal. It was a beautiful sunny day. We came home through the Carmel Market (where I bought some delicious hard goat cheese), then I peeled off from the group to go get a manicure/pedicure. After that, I went for a hair cut.

Tuesday night, the ELOs headed up to Hertzliya after work to the DCM’s residence to hear an interesting speaker. He’s blind and Arab – not a good combination in Israel. He’s an exceptional young man who has started a non-profit organization to help the blind, particularly the Arab community. He’s lobbying for handicap access to public buildings, etc. I wish him luck.

I worried a lot this week about Flavia, for a variety of reasons. Number one, I have been very worried about getting her to Pakistan this summer. I finally found a good flight that will let me take her in the cabin with me!

We went back to the vet today for her rabies shot, in preparation for leaving Tel Aviv. She is still losing hair and we still don’t know why. Her blood work is good and she seems perfectly normal in her behavior. The vet suspects she is stressed and is grooming excessively (we looked at her hair under the microscope and it’s broken off, not falling out). What do you do with a stressed cat?

 

 

The week began with my last photography class Monday after work. I really have enjoyed it! It’s nice to finally understand at least some of the settings on my camera.

 

Tuesday night I had my weekly Urdu lesson. It’s always so humbling to begin a new language. My main goal with Urdu is just to learn some basic phrases, so there’s not a lot of pressure, thank goodness!

Wednesday our sweet neighbors Katie and Charlie invited me, Diane and Bill down for dinner – Charlie made a yummy roast and Katie made a homemade apple tart. It was a really nice evening.

Thursday night was book club – the first one since John left. It was up the street at another couple’s apartment. We had some new folks, and had a good time.

Friday, a new officer arrived at Post – he’ll be working with us in ACS. Juan and I took him to Whitehall for lunch. He seems really nice; he’s also second tour, so he’s comfortable with the work already. We also have an ELO rotating through ACS this month, so I’ve been training him this week.

I took this photo of the building across the street from us. Tel Aviv was probably a beautiful city in its hey-day, but many of the buildings – like this one – have fallen into disrepair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2004, Tel Aviv was named a World Heritage Site, and I’ve read that the city is subsidizing renovations of many of its beautiful Bauhaus buildings. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, we have modern new high-rise buildings, like this round hotel we see from our apartment in the other direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I watched a couple of movies this week, “Happy Tears” and “Bobby” (as in Kennedy). Both movies had some great actresses. “Happy Tears” had Parker Posey (one of my favorites), Demi Moore and Ellen Barkin (love her, too). “Bobby” had (again) Demi Moore, Helen Hunt and Sharon Stone. Except for Parker Posey’s role, none of the roles were typical for these actresses, and it was great to see them do such good work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday I went with an Embassy group to Jericho, located in the West Bank east of Jerusalem and near the Dead Sea. First we saw the ruins of Hisham’s Palace, where they uncovered a beautiful mosaic, The Tree of Life. The stones are so small it looks like tapestry. I especially liked this shot of the groundskeeper mopping:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there we took a cable car ride up Temptation Mountain to a Greek monastery built into the side of the mountain – it had a beautiful view of the Dead Sea. (The cable car went right through the front yards of several houses – I can’t imagine walking out of my house and having a cable car go by!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we went to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the mountain caves.

It was a fun day and I got to go to some places I hadn’t been before – plus, it was a nice group of folks.

Today my neighbor Diane called with a spur of the minute idea to drive to Ein Hod to eat at an Arab restaurant, so off we went with another girl. The restaurant was typical Arab where they bring you a million different dishes, but this was the best one I have been to – everything was fresh and you could taste the difference. No menu, “just whatever Mamma cooked today.” And sure enough, out of the kitchen came Mamma with her apron. We also had a great view of the Mediterranean off in the distance, as well as the sad view of the fire-ravaged Carmel Mountain to the east.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped at the bottom of the hill at Kibbutz Ein Hod where there’s a funky artist colony, where we poked around for a while in the gallery and shops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the week was pretty low key. We had a reception at the DCM’s house on Thursday night to meet diplomats from other Embassies. It was fun to talk to folks who do what we do but for other countries.

I spent one morning at the airport to assist a teenage girl return back to the U.S. Helping American citizens is one of the most interesting parts of my job – it was great to talk to her mom on the phone and hear her relief that her daughter was OK and on her way back home.

I started a distance learning Urdu language class this week; you study on your own and have a phone session with an FSI instructor once a week. My goal is just to leave some basic words and phrases since I won’t get language training for my next job. It’s kind of fun knowing there won’t be a test at the end!

On a lighter note, I came across this graphic last week and it keeps popping into my mind – it just makes me giggle:

 

 

The weather here has been windy, chilly and rainy a lot this week, alternated with bright sunny days. Today the wind and rain made for a beautiful ocean filled with whitecaps.

 

Today was my last outing with my photography class. We bundled up and finished right about the time it started raining. We walked around one of the first Tel Aviv neighborhoods, Neve Tzedek (Oasis of the Righteous), where we saw great old buildings, outdoor art and several cats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday was a holiday, so we were off work – I spent the day reading and watching Australian Open tennis.

Friday was a pretty day, so my boss Juan and I walked up to the market so he could buy pomegranates. We stopped on the way back and ate lunch at a sidewalk cafe.

Last night I went to Ben and Jen’s for a chili supper – fun!

Here’s a photo of Flavia looking suspiciously at the kitten who was visiting us last Sunday.