Dedicated to Baron Edmund James de Rothschild and Whitney Houston

Last week I was in Tel Aviv almost all week.  I came to spend time in Herzliya with my *pseudo* grandma and we had a ball together.  First of all, the weather was stunning.  Nice enough to even motivate me to go for a run one afternoon.  I have no idea how far I actually ran, but I paid for it the next two days when I could hardly move my legs... :)  In regards to the metric system though, its really sad that we who grow up in America cannot really converse with anyone else in the world when it comes to measurements.  I have gotten stuck a few times with this.  Once was with the insurance guy when he asked me my height and weight... uhm... height... 1 meter something?  weight I told him in lbs and just told him to divide by 2 and then subtract a little.  oops.  Then the next time I ran into this issue was after I went to the bank in Ramat Hasharon and I wanted to go and visit my grandparents graves.  I was given directions and the woman said walk about 400 meters.  After 10 minutes walking I wasn't sure what that meant... I thought it was a close distance?!  Anyway, clearly WE as Americans are deficient.  This is solely our issue and not the rest of the worlds.

So one of the days with Eva we went to the Eretz Israel Museum.  A beautiful place.  I have only been there once and it was for a wedding so I had not ever seen the actual museum.  I was most impressed with a special wing dedicated to Rothschild.  For those of you who do not know who Baron Rothschild was (or are unfamiliar with Israeli history) then I thoroughly encourage you to look him up and learn a little.  In a nutshell, he was a very wealthy Jew who lived in France and wanted to financially support the Jewish settlers in Palestine in the late 1800's/early 1900's.  He believed that creating a Jewish land for eastern European Jewry would solve the issues of the pogroms and anti-Semitism.  He made it to Palestine 5 times in his life and he really went above and beyond to donate all he could (tons of money, supplies, industry, professionals to teach the Jews how to work, etc...) and its partially because of him that the land I am dwelling in today exists.  There is a beautiful street in Tel Aviv that is named for him.  In 1913 this is what it looked like this (*note that Tel Aviv was created in 1909):

Today it is an amazing area to live, dine, sit in the middle boulevard and people watch, etc... This is the area that I would love to live in but its hard to find apartments since its so popular.  This is what it looks like today:

Most of last week was spent in Tel Aviv. I walked a lot and continued to get to know the city.  I met up with some friends and continued on the job search.  

Last Friday I witnessed something really cool.  A girl named Joyce who neither Sima or I knew directly, but we both knew people that she knew had a 32nd birthday.  Instead of having some big rager she decided that because 32 in gematria (** gematria is the idea that each Hebrew letter has a numerical value and therefore words can add up to different numbers)  adds up to לב or Lev (heart), she would have a "bloody birthday" where everyone she knew would come to Magen David Adom and donate blood.  Cool idea, huh?  She had tons of food there in the shape of hearts and lots of people came.  It was amazing.  A journalist from Ma'ariv even came and there was an article about it in the paper!  Here is a link to the article, but it is in Hebrew!  http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/338/776.html

Friday I also got a chance to see Tali, Ari, and the whole Goldblatt clan again.  We spent time in Nachalat Binyamin (the arts & crafts fair) and at the shuk (market).  It was really fun and I was really sad to say goodbye.  There were definitely some tears involved, but we got a good picture out of it (if you're reading this Tal, I love you and miss you so much!):

Shabbat was back in Jerusalem and it was really fun and relaxing.  On Saturday we pulled out the collage materials and had so much fun collaging!  I haven't made art in so long and it was really fun- it took me back to the good old Camp Ramah in Wisconsin days.  The days of Mod Podge!!

As those of you on FB know I had a job interview on Sunday.  I really enjoyed the place I interviewed at and the person I interviewed with, I will keep you posted.  In the meantime, there have been some other job opportunities as well.  I am sure the stars will align and the perfect thing will fall into place.

Anyway, now I am in Tel Aviv again, hoping to see some apartments today to start getting a sense of what is out there. I'm also going to meet up with my friend Jamie who I haven't seen in years!?

I know last week was a big week with the death of Whitney Houston.  I am sure that there was a lot of media surrounding that.  Here I didn't hear so much about it (because I havent really seen any news) but in some of the cafes that I was working in I heard her music more than I normally do.  When I was talking to my friend Phillip this past weekend he said to me, "Leehe, I was listening to Greatest Love of All and the lyrics made me think of you and your adventure."

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I'll live as I believe

So on that note, cheers to you Phillip and cheers to Whitney Houston who brought beautiful and meaningful music to this world.  As for me, I agree that if I fail or if I succeed this journey so far has been freeing.  Even in those hard moments, the times where I am so lonely, when I miss my home and my stable surroundings, I keep thinking about how at least I am doing something I have always wondered about.  That takes guts, right??  I have to tell myself that it does, otherwise.......