Saturday was our last day in Israel. Miriam and our friend Jeremy came over for breakfast. Aviva was very happy to see Miriam.
She had a great time playing with Miriam and her Nana Frances.
Before breakfast Aviva practiced her drumming skills and tried to put on her bib.
Jeremy and I (Callista) took Aviva for a walk to buy some Israeli groceries (more olives!) Later we went back to the Tel Aviv port for lunch with another old friend, Yitzhak. His lovely wife Haia also joined us.
Yitzhak treated us to a delicious lunch. Aviva loved the desserts.
Thanks again to Yitzhak and his wife for coming to meet us and for lunch. It was wonderful to spend time with them.
This next photo isn't great, but Aviva is making a funny face, and there aren't too many photos of the two of us, so I included it.Even though she doesn't speak Hebrew, Aviva enjoyed meeting people on the boardwalk.After a nice walk on the beach, we did some weightlifting at the park. Then it was time to pack up and head home. We had such a great time with Yitzhak, Jeremy, Miriam, Grandma/Nana Frances, and of course all of the cousins. We were very sad to go, and already look forward to returning!
Friday morning we had breakfast in the apartment. Aviva enjoyed "talking on the phone" to Nana Frances. The "phone" can be an actual cell phone, a block, or in this case, a piece of pita bread.
Maybe she left the bread there to use it as a hands-free headset later. It sounds like Aviva responds, "Yeah" when Nana Frances asks whether she wants her milk, but trust me, she basically says "Yeah" and "Dah" to everything.
Then Aviva tried to help clean up by getting in the dishwasher.
Don't worry - of course now I realize how dangerous that was and won't be letting her climb into it anymore!
We then took a train to Haifa, Israel's third largest city, to meet Roye, Ilana's son. Roye took us on a great driving tour of northern Israel. First we went to Mount Gilboa, the site of a very important Bible story about the Battle between King Saul and the Philistines. Roye did a wonderful job as our tour guide. Many thanks to him for a really interesting and fun day.
In this photo you can see the view, as well as a paraglider getting ready to take off. Our next stop was Bet Alfa, an ancient synagogue from the end of the fifth century CE. Almost all of the synagogue is gone, except for the base of some pillars and the entire floor mosaic, which is amazingly well preserved. Here you can see the story of Abraham and Isaac. At the end of the day, we drove back to Haifa and visited Roye's apartment. From a little park near their home, there is a terrific view of the Bay of Haifa. Since their sukkah was still up, we sat in it and had tea and a delicious apple cake that Dalit had just baked.
Aviva spent time with her Roye's wife, Dalit. Roye, Frances, me (Callista), Aviva, Dalit, and their younger son, Aviv (a modern version of Aviva!). We also watched a video of Roye and Dalit's wedding. Frances' late husband (Aviva's great-grandfather) sang one of the blessings during the ceremony. It was nice to see Peter's grandfather sing, since I had heard so much about him.
We took a shared mini-bus back to Tel Aviv, and by the time we got home, we weren't interested in going to a restaurant. Peter brought back take out from Agadir Burger Bar: one beef burger with Emmental cheese and sauteed mushrooms; one lamb/beef burger with sauteed onion and pickled lemon; large fries; and a huge green salad. Yum. The burgers were delicious, plus they came in a very fancy McDLT-type boxes.
After the birthday party, we walked to the neighborhood synagogue for Simchat Torah, another Jewish holiday. On the way there, we were told that the celebrations wouldn't start for another hour. While we were waiting, we went with Ilana's family to see her new apartment in Rehovot (slightly larger town 10 minutes away.) Aviva got in some snuggle time with Ilana. After touring the apartment, we walked a few blocks away to another synagogue, only to find out that there would be no celebrations there. Strike two.
Since we really wanted to see the celebration in Israel, we piled into two taxis and went back toward Kiryat Ekron, and stopped at a big synagogue. Success!
Even though we didn't get there until about 7:30 pm, it was like a carnival! There was dance music pumping through loudspeakers and children running everywhere with handfuls of popcorn and cotton candy. One father was helping his daughter climb the pole in the middle of the plaza.
This clip is a bit long, but you can see first a pan over the whole outdoor plaza, then a group of teenage boys starting to dance, and then the Torahs being carried into the plaza. The first group of dancers was all men and boys, and there was a group of girls and women dancing inside, but you can see a woman and some kids touching the Torah in the clip.
Aviva did look up at the music a bit, but she was having a terrific time playing in the dirt. It might be difficult to tell in this photo, but she is still wearing her poofy party dress.
Aviva's hair is getting long, so she's been wearing it up in one or two pigtails, which we take out before she goes to bed. Sometimes, though, she wakes up with her hair still sticking up from the previous day's hairdo. (In this photo she also has yogurt on her face.)
After breakfast, we went to the Tel Aviv Port to walk around. Unfortunately I forgot our camera, but we did take a few photos with Peter's camera that I will upload later this week. The port is a huge complex of restaurants and shops, right on the water. Because it was a holiday, there were hundreds of families with kids and strollers everywhere.
In the afternoon, we went to the birthday party of Michala, who is the granddaughter of Ilana (Frances' first cousin.) The party was at Michala's house in Kiryat Ekron, a suburb of Tel Aviv.
We figured that the party would be like most kids' parties (at least the ones we've been to), where the families sort of trickle in. Nope. This party had an official start. We were 30 minutes late, and while we were on our way, Ilana called us to find out where we were! It was a little embarrassing. They had waited for us to start the party. Oops.
The party officially started with lots of singing, with the birthday girl sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. Her mother, aunts and uncle read very heartfelt letters to her. Even though I couldn't understand the Hebrew, I was very touched. From left to right are Roye, Ilana's oldest son; Roye's wife, Dalit; Michala's father; Michala's mother, Inbal (one of Ilana's two daughters); and Ilana. Even Aviva stopped socializing to listen (for a few seconds.) Then, there was more singing and clapping, and the birthday girl blew out the candles on her cake. This clip includes a few seconds of video of Aviva chasing after her balloon. In the video you can also see Frances next to Ilana, and Ari (Inbal's husband), who gives Aviva the balloon.
Then, Michala's relatives lifted her on a chair. I will rely on my Israeli friends to help translate what everyone was saying.
For the past few weeks Aviva has been getting more and more social. At the party, she loved interacting with everyone. In this clip, she plays with one of Michala's friends, eats Ilana's pizza, and watches her cousin (Inbal's youngest son) play video games.
Aviva kept crawling onto Michala's kid-sized sofa. Later, the mother of the birthday girl led the children in some games. The kids sat in a circle, and Little Miss Social crawled right past them into the circle! She seemed to think it was a party for her. Fortunately the birthday girl was very gracious and didn't mind her strange baby cousin's antics.
The first game was sort of an Israeli Hot Potato. The kids passed around a present while music played. When the music stopped, whoever was holding the present had to unwrap it and follow the directions inside that layer of wrapping paper. Many of the directions were sort of sweet, like, "Give your mother a kiss." I can't really imagine American kids playing this game.
Aviva was too little to play the games, but she participated by dancing on the side.
It was so wonderful to be included in the celebration, and very interesting to see how an Israeli child's birthday party differs from an American one. Many thanks to Michala and her family for including us!
Tomorrow I'll post the photos and videos from the rest of the evening (Simchat Torah at a local synagogue.)
We spent most of Wednesday with our cousin Miriam, who very graciously acted as our tour guide. Miriam is starting her second year of medical school in Tel Aviv. We took a bus to Jerusalem, and we walked around the very fancy Mamilla Mall, which is right outside the Old City. There are outposts of American chain stores, including Gap and North Face. Because it was still Sukkot (a Jewish holiday), nearly every one of the cafes and restaurants had built a sukkah (walled structure covered with plants) over its outdoor seating.
Even Aroma Cafe (Israel's answer to Starbucks) had one. In the Old City, there were groups of Hasidic Jews in different types of headgear. Inside the Old City, we had access to some beautiful (and iconic) views of Jerusalem. Here's a shot of the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. You can't really tell from the photo, but the women's section is much smaller than the men's section. Miriam and I went up to the women's section, where there are hundreds of women sitting and standing in front of the wall praying. Some were murmuring prayers softly, but most were quiet. It is quite an intense and moving experience. Tradition has it that one should write a prayer on a piece of paper and slip it in between the stones, so the cracks between the stones are stuffed full of little notes. At the Western Wall plaza, there was at least one extremely elaborate sukkah. We posed for some family pictures. We continued wandering, and eventually found the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It is a very holy site for Christians, and includes many places where Jesus is supposed to have been in his last moments of life. Here are pilgrims touching the Stone of Anointing, the place where the body of Jesus is said to have been prepared for burial.
After our wonderful tour of the Old City, we had to say good-bye to Miriam. As you can see, Aviva was enthralled by her cousin. As we walked around the perimeter of the Old City, we passed Damascus Gate, which apparently doubles as a retail superstore. There were people selling fruit, electronics, clothes, shoes...and possibly more.
We wandered around Jerusalem a bit more, stopping for a quick rest at the beautiful American Colony Hotel, and passing the YMCA on the way. Before we got on the shared mini-bus back to Tel Aviv, we needed a snack. However, it was already after sundown on the eve of Shemini Atzeret (the holiday immediately following Sukkot.) Even though it was only 5:30 PM, everything was closed. The only place open?
Even though it's American, and even though it's a chain, we were glad to find it. After some quick fries, we headed back to Tel Aviv.
Grandma Frances' cousin Ilana had come over to the apartment to see Grandma Frances, and we all went out to dinner on Nachalat Binyamin.
Today, we continued on what may soon become a routine: breakfast, swimming, and then exploring a new neighborhood for lunch. This time, we went to the area called Neve Tsedek, and had a fantastic meal at Suzana, under two enormous trees.
We shared three cold starters: roast eggplant with cheese and a dill sauce; beet salad with yogurt, fresh mozzarella, and arugula; and fried cauliflower. Yum!
Peter and I then shared the roast goose leg with bulghur wheat and root vegetables, and Nana Frances had puff pastry with eggplant, tomato, and goat cheese. Afterwards, we were stuffed.
After some excellent shopping on Shabazi street, we headed home for a brief rest. Later, Peter and Aviva and I went to HaTachana, a shopping complex that used to be a train station, very close to the beach. There has been a "Sweets festival" this week, and there were hundreds of families enjoying it. From what we could tell, the festival consisted of dozens of stalls selling sugary junk food: candy apples, cotton candy, gigantic cupcakes, etc.
There were tons of kids on the ice rink (yes, an ice rink, right next to the Mediterranean Ocean!)
And a juggler entertained many parents and kids:Before dinner, Nana Frances showed Aviva how to put the coasters back into their box. Tomorrow's plan: Jerulsalem.
She had a great time playing with Miriam and her Nana Frances.
Later we went back to the Tel Aviv port for lunch with another old friend, Yitzhak. His lovely wife Haia also joined us.
Thanks again to Yitzhak and his wife for coming to meet us and for lunch. It was wonderful to spend time with them.
Even though she doesn't speak Hebrew, Aviva enjoyed meeting people on the boardwalk.
After a nice walk on the beach, we did some weightlifting at the park.
