Living in the present: "Candy Makes Me Happy"

That quote was found on a little girl's shirt today. She was about 10 years old, cute, and pudgy. I agree with the sentiment.

So... I've been a bit MIA in the last two weeks and I apologize for that.

Lets see if I can summarize two weeks ago. I was in Herzliya with Eva (a close family friend who is like my pseudo grandmother). I found an apartment during that time- a sublet until the end of May with two other girls. Its a nice apartment and fully furnished and some place to be in the time being until I get things sorted in my own head. I had two interviews that week as well for the same place of work, was offered the job, but then turned it down. I don't want to rush into taking any job just for the sake of working. I think that I have some questions in my own mind at the moment and I'd like to answer them before taking a job... that might not make sense to everyone, but I am living for myself right now and I feel good about my decision.

Late last week before I moved into the apartment, my friend Omer had visitors arrive from Germany, Jenni and Bastion. Jenni and Omer studied together at Parsons in NYC and her and her boyfriend Basti decided to come and visit Israel for 9 days. First of all, that in itself is amazing to me. Two intelligent people knowing no one but Omer in Israel and still wanting to come to vacation and learn more about the people and places. Incredible. I ended up spending most of the week with them and it was just incredible.

Last Friday we drove out to Omer's parents Moshav (near Ashkelon) and had a fantastic Shabbat dinner with his parents. That was the same day that Israel killed the terrorists in Gaza. On the drive home there were some rockets that fell in a field really close to the moshav and we saw the Kipat Barzel/ Iron shield missiles that Israel sends to try and stop the rockets. It was weird. We all noticed funny things in the sky and said, "hmmmm, those are some weird looking fireworks." It wasn't until Omer's mom called to tell us what was going on that we pieced it all together. I think for Jenni and Basti that was more of Israel than they ever wanted to see!?

On Saturday I moved into my sublet apartment. It took me a day to get set up, but its a nice place with two really sweet roommates. One is an American who made aliyah about 1.5 years ago and the other an Israeli. I will have to take some pictures and then post them next time. The nice thing about a sublet is that the room is already furnished. Although I must admit that I miss my princess bed tremendously...

This week I took time and traveled through Israel with Jenni and Basti. We had an awesome day in Jerusalem, 2 days up north, and a day at the Dead Sea. It was a really great week. I think two realizations really stand out about it. One, I really love teaching about Israel. I love talking about Israel. I love making other people see what I see. I love exploring both old things and new things alike. I got to wear the tour guide hat for a whole week and it was incredible. Two, I had some really good conversations about life and politics, about education and culture, and about the US, Germany, and Israel.

I think that when I was little it was normal to hear American Jews talk about Germany in a negative tone. "Don't buy that car its German made", "Why would you want to go to Germany on your trip", "What a terrible language to hear/study, etc". Its quite understandable given history that people would have negative feelings post war and even in the generation that followed, but I think that in some cases this "distrust" of Germans has even made it into my own generation. It's as if people equate all Germans to Nazis. Clearly, this is not one and the same.

I have always been fascinated by the Holocaust, my maternal grandparents were both Holocaust survivors. I didn't really know either of them but I am 100% certain that everything they experienced changed their life tremendously and affected the way that they raised their children both consciously and unconsciously. I am 100% certain that my mother was affected by the "survivor" psychosis that she was raised with and I am also 100% certain that my upbringing was probably somehow affected by the continued generational "survivor" psychosis. Its natural to be affected by one's own history, but I have to say that this negative idea and commentary of Germany/Germans really irks me and I want to make a point to address it here in my blog.

I have traveled a lot in the last 10 years and have always been intrigued by how many Germans I meet in my travels. Its impressive that the younger German generation is very eager to see the world and learn about other cultures. I would really recommend at some point to have a conversation with someone from Germany about what it is like growing up there given their country's history. Or ask about how Holocaust education is taught there. Or even ask what they know about Jews/Judaism. Its quite fascinating to discuss and you'll learn a lot.

This week of conversations inspired some thoughts, so here are some bullet points:

- Everyone should be able to have pride in who they are and where they come from
- We can't always carry the world's history on our shoulders
- Living in the past will not lead us anywhere. Live in the present (hence the name of the blog!)
- We should be required to open our eyes always and see things from every perspective
- Laughter is the best medicine
- There is beauty in everything, sometimes you need to dig a little deeper to find it and sometimes not

I have a lot of pictures from these past two weeks. I'll have to pick out the best ones to post today, although once I get more from Jenni and Basti I may post them later on too. Enjoy!

This is a life guard stand. Does it remind anyone else of the Jetsons?

Design Museum, Holon

Exhibit at Design Museum which has a screen looking like snow until you sit down in front of it and then it creates the image that it sees. In this case, me and Eva.