One Year

This time last year I was a crazy mix of excited, nervous, happy and impatient.  I know that everyone always says the cliché "I can't believe it's been a year" but I guess it's a cliché because it's true!  It's amazing to me just how much my life is different from what it was a year ago.  Being married is awesome. It is truly wonderful to have someone you love so much to share your life with.  We definitely haven't had a conventional "first-year" (but who does really?) - immediately after getting married we have sold a house, moved all our stuff to storage and then moved ourselves to Israel. Even though living out here, so far away from everything we are used to, has been tough sometimes, it has also been an unbelievable way to figure out together the whole being married thing. And that has been so great.  I just feel so lucky to have found my 'person' (for all you grey's anatomy watchers ;) ) and for the fantastic year we've had, and more fun to come :)

sunset dinner on the beach:

 

Making Gnocchi

If you've never made gnocchi you should try it!  It's not as hard as it seems, but it does take a lot of time (mainly roasting the potatoes), so I recommend doing tons in advance because it freezes quite nicely (and then is almost an instant meal).

Smoosh a bunch of roasted starchy potatoes so they are smooth (we had to use a sieve since we don't have a ricer here), mix with some egg, flour, salt and pepper and a pinch of nutmeg, and roll into snakes.  Then cut into little pieces and boil for a few minutes and voila!  The pictures of the cooked gnocchi looked totally gross so I didn't post them....but it was actually amazing!  

This is the view from the patio of one of our favourite restaurants at the Port called Nimrod's Cafe.  It also serves delicious tri-colour gnocchi in cream sauce.  But mainly we go there for the burgers (with cheese!) or fish and chips and beer :)

Language Fun

I know, two posts in one day.  Whoa!

Fun with Hebrew:

Today I had a meeting downtown (in a government building) and forgot that the guards at this building don't usually speak English (and being government they care why you're there).  I thought of avoiding eye contact and just going to the elevators, but that usually isn't a good move in Israel...so this is what happened:

Guard:  "something I don't understand"
Me (in Hebrew): ummmm.. I don't speak Hebrew, do you speak English?  (best sentence to learn - but kind of weird when you are saying, in Hebrew, that you don't speak it)
Guard (in perfect English) "No, I only speak Russian and Hebrew.  Do you speak Russian?"
???????
(the more I think of this, the more I realize that he had probably just learned this sentence in English like mine above.  Either that or it was a slow day and he was just having fun)
...so what followed was me trying to explain that I had a meeting on the fourth floor, realizing that I only know the verb "to meet" (at least I hope that's what I said)
" I am meeting...ummmm....... 4......ummmm....pointing up at the ceiling"

Luckily he had pity on me, figured it out, repeated something in Hebrew to which I nodded and smiled and said a lot of "todah's" (thank you) and he let me through (even though I had forgotten my passport, so lucky day for me)

Biking to Jaffa

The weekend before last was Shavuot, the long weekend that marks seven weeks after Passover, it's like Israel's version of May 2-4, so we decided to spend our free day renting bikes and riding down to Jaffa.  The bike rental system here is great - it's like Bixi bikes (which I've never actually tried) but they did a great job in Tel Aviv because there are stations everywhere, not to mention the entire city is flat, and it's roughly the same cost as taking a round trip on a bus. 

The day started out slightly less than desired. As we were figuring out how to pay, I felt something hit my shoulder and immediately thought - someone just egged me!!  That's how much impact I felt, like an egg thrown from an apartment building.  Turns out it was one of our friendly (gigantic raven) neighborhood birds...soooo gross.  I can't even tell you.  But the day was much better after that!  Unfortunately I didn't think of taking a picture so you could share in my disgust.  After recouping we got some bikes and headed out to the beach near our place.  The entire coast is lined with a boardwalk from Bat Yam in the south to Herzlyia in the North which makes it amazing for biking.  

I forgot to take any nice pictures of the coast...but here is one of a parking lot...(the sea is to the left)

The rest of the day we spent exploring the old city in Jaffa (one of the oldest cities in the world-  people have lived in the harbour since the bronze age!)  We ate shwarma and falafel for lunch and had ice cream near the docks.  

This is me exploring an alley:

Then we saw a very colourful wall:

And some pretty buildings (the first picture reminds me of St. Augustine, Florida):

And then we biked back along the coast (this is from a hill in Jaffa, looking toward Tel Aviv - our beach is another few kilometers past the farthest point)

I promise the view was better than this -  the majority of the ride is along the beach:

Whoa - I almost forgot one of the most significant happenings of the day.  We had our first full Hebrew exchange with an Israeli!  (like other than thank you and hello).  I ordered drinks (in Hebrew), and he didn't tell us the price in English!  He said it in Hebrew and I understood!  ok I also looked at the board before hand and could see how much it was going to be, but still. I know I'm impressed.