It's all about childhood / Ah l'enfance !

A friend of ours went back home (to the US) for holidays and I had made a special request to her hoping that my request wasn't too silly or "so out of date". Anyways, when she came back, I wondered whether she had forgotten about what I had asked for, until I received this in internal mail:

L'une de nos amies est retournée chez elle (aux Etats-Unis) en vacances et je lui avais fait une demande spéciale, en espérant que c'était pas une demande trop bête ni 'dépassé'. En tout cas, lorsqu'elle est revenue, je me demandais si elle avait oublié ma 'commande' ...jusqu'à ce que je reçoive ça par courrier interne :


As I said in the title...it is all about childhood! I used to eat these when I was still in Suriname and I loved them! I think I also had them in France but then they stopped selling them in the shops, which of course broke my heart!

I remember going to the US once and bringing a box back home and enjoying every loop of it! This time I am torn. Should I eat them or should I save them?!

Comme je l'ai dit dans le titre... Ah l'enfance ! Je mangeais ça quand j'étais encore au Surinam, et je les adorais ! Je crois en avoir mangé en France aussi, mais ou bout d'un moment on ne les trouvait plus dans les magasins, ce qui m'a brisé le cœur, bien sûr !

Je me rappelle qu'une fois je suis allée aux Etats-Unis et que j'avais ramené une boîte. J'ai apprécié chaque petit loop ! Mais cette fois je me demande... est-ce que je devrais les manger... ou bien les garder ?

Ramat Hatishbi on Shabbat

Sitting here at 10.30 a.m. today, idling away another quiet Shabbat morning, I thought I'd show you our tranquil, leafy neighbourhood - Ramat Hatishbi (which, a little scarily, gets a brief mention -here- on Wikipedia). We live at the bottom end of Rekhov Shunamit (Shunamit Street), and from our living room window you can see, opposite and a little to the left, the end of Rekhov Ovadia (Obadiah Street). Shunamit is one-way down, while Ovadia is one-way up, and the bus stops just outside our flat on its way round the loop.

Note the general leafy greenness, and the clear blue sky. Although there's no-one out there right now, if you swap Sunday for Saturday, you'll be unsurprised to hear that one of the popular Shabbat pastimes is...car washing.



As you look down Shunamit to the right, past and over the appartment blocks -- these ones managing to display enough evidence of creativity on the part of the architect to escape the usual accusation levelled at many local residential builings of being 'functional' in appearance -- the line of deep blue that you can see stretching across the bottom of the sky is the Mediterranean Sea.


We actually swam in the Israeli part of the Med for the first time last Shabbat (See previous post). I know, it took us six months to actually get into the water! - but in our defence, it is often full of jellyfish, and last weekend was confirmed Jellyfish-free on Haifa's Carmel Beach (Hof HaCarmel), which is more-or-less the section of sea you're looking at, south-west of the city.

So, that's our little corner of Ramat Hatishbi.

Swim swim swim

Yesterday we went for a swim at the beach for the first time since we have been here. John and I are not really beach people, especially if it involves laying in a baking sun for hours doing nothing, so going to the beach for a swim was not top top on our priority list. But don’t get us wrong, we love the sea, the sound of the waves, the fresh air and we have been a couple of times to the beach to enjoy that.

After a great deal of fresh air, sun and nice company (we went with a friend), we headed home and we were just in time to enjoy the sunset from our flat!

Back to pottery

Last evening, Wednesday, we were finally able to go back to pottery! What a treat! Pottery was definitely the thing I missed most during the Israel-Lebanon conflict! Unfortunetaly, not all from our usual group (Baha'is and Israelis) could make it so it was "half a reunion" with Michal, our teacher. It was nice to catch up with her and to get back to our pots that had been sitting there for over a month. I was able to trim my two pots that were waiting for me to take care of them and to make two other (small) ones.


(more of the pottery workshop on our flickr account!)

Holy Pomegranates!

A few days ago at our local superette at the World Centre, we were able to get some pomegranates from the Baha'i Gardens. Holy Pomegranate! No...not really, just simple, nice fruits that grow on the trees in the Gardens! I like this idea of being able to get these fruits in the superette. They look nice on the trees but we might as well eat them! Why waste them?

There were also some avocados some time ago but I don't have any photos of them. They were as tasty as the pomegranates!

D-Day - Jour J

So far so good comme on dirait en anglais. Aujourd'hui, premier jour du cessez-le-feu qui a commencé il y a 14 heures. Pas une sirène d'entendu à Haïfa...

So far so good. Today is the first day of the ceasefire, which started 14 hours ago. Since then, we've not heard a single air-raid siren in Haifa...

Sushi Day

What to do when it is the weekend but you can't really go outside and enjoy the day? Prepare tons of sushi (well almost)!

This is my second attempt and John's first. We both thought it was a success, although we made way too many. We had them for lunch and will probably also have them for dinner (or tea, as the British might also say).

We think we're probably experts on sushi now (yeah, right!) and could make some next time we have to contribute to a potluk or something.

Alors, que faire lorsque c’est le week-end mais que tu peux pas vraiment sortir et profiter de la journée ?! Préparer des tonnes de sushi…enfin presque.

C’était ma seconde tentative et John sa première. On pense tous les deux que c’était une réussite, même si on en a préparé beaucoup trop. On en a eu pour le déjeuner et on en aura probablement aussi pour le dîner.

On pense qu’on est probablement devenu des experts en sushi (que dire !) et qu’on pourrait en préparer la prochaine fois qu’on doit aller à un potluk.

The ingredients

Burning the seaweed and following the recipe

The rice

Almost there

Rolling like a river

Once you've started, you can't stop! They grow naturally.

Enjoying.

ps: we did have them for tea - on les a effectivement eu pour le diner aussi...

6 Months already! - 6 mois déjà !

It is amazing how time flies when you are enjoying where you are, who you are there with and what you are doing. We arrived in Haifa exactly 6 months ago today. I remember we were picked up at the airport by our friend A. (from sweet home Alabama) along with R. who came from Argentina and R. who came from Germany-USA. We were so excited to get to Haifa and we just couldn’t believe that we were actually going to live in Haifa for a few years and being able to be volunteer at the Bahá’í World Centre.

Adapting to life here went more or less smoothly having had the occasion to live here for 3 weeks in summer 2005. Adapting to our positions was a bit more challenging – but in a GOOD way!

So here we are now. Not quite in the same peaceful country as we used to be 6 months ago given the current situation but still enjoying life (differently) and willing to stay here until the end of our volunteer service!


C’est incroyable comme le temps passe vite lorsque tu aimes un endroit ou tu es, avec qui tu y es et ce que tu y fais. Nous sommes arrivés à Haifa il y a 6 mois aujourd’hui. Je me rappelle, A. notre amie de l’Alabama est venue nous chercher, nous et R. de l’Argentine et R. de l’Allemagne-Etats-Unis. Nous étions tellement excités d’arriver Haifa et on avait du mal à réaliser qu on allait vivre à Haifa pour quelques années et qu’on allait pouvoir faire du volontariat au Centre Mondial Bahá’í.

S’adapter à la vie ici c’est fait plus ou moins sans encombre puisqu’on avait eu la chance de vivre ici pendant 3 semaines pendant l’été 2005. S’adapter à nos boulots etait un peu plus un challenge mais dans le bon sens du terme !

Donc, nous y voilà, pas tout à fait dans le même pays « calme » d’il y a 6 mois vu la situation actuelle mais toujours motivés à rester ici jusqu’à la fin de notre période de volontariat !

our orientation group (Feb. 2006)

Don't have any photo for this posting

For those who read this blog (!!) and for those who wonder how we are, just a line to say that we are safe. So far so good. Love from both of us.

Pour ceux qui lisent ce blog (!!) et pour ceux qui se demande comment nous allons, ce petit mot pour vous dire que nous allons bien. Bisous de nous deux.

Mangez-moi!

Fruits that I like and that we have here...

Mangos

Papayas (outside)

Papayas (inside)

Cherries

Cherries

I was told by our friends from Surinam that there are Surinamese cherries in Bahji but I have yet to find them. Exciting though because I LOVE that kind of cherries!