Hey all,
Last week a lot of things has happend and I will try to recall them all in the stories below. On Monday me, Adi and Maya went to the Interior Ministry again to hand in even more papers and we are hopefully now done with handing them papers. Next time we get there we are apparently going to be interviewed separately so that they can get more information to base their decisions on. On Wednesday Adi, Maya and Tzipora(grandma) had a pedicure each for the upcoming wedding, this took place at Tziporas apartment. Before going there me and Adi had printed some pictures that we now have decorated our room with.
On thursday the big day that has been planned for in the last couple of months came, the day of Danit and Shay wedding. During the day Adi, her mother and some other people went to the hair and makeup-dresser for most of the day while I prepared my suit , shoes and hair at home. The wedding was at a khibutz close to Haifa. As I haven't been to a wedding in many years I did not know what to expect and what happend during the night blew me away. When I asked Maya who was coming? she said everyone...and that was very true, the entire area was filled with friends, cousins, grandparents etc all in all some 450ish guests. As this was of course a Jewish wedding I had little to no idea of what was going to happen and compared to what I remember from the last wedding I was at many things were different. First thing at a jewish wedding in Israel, no-one brings gifts. But as soon as you enter the wedding/party-area there is a table with papers, envelopes, pens and safe-box. You write down something nice and then place the note together with a check or regular cash into the envelope and then you put it in the safe-box. So instead of giving gifts the guests gives money to the soon-to-be-married couple. The religious ceremony in itself was of ourse also different, but one thing was similar the bride and the groom drove/walked together to the Chupa( a "house" with an alter). When it was all about to start Shay and Danit came driving down a road in there oldskool WV Beetle and the music playing was something that I thought I'd never hear at a wedding, but what was playing was nothing less then Europes - Final Countdown. The religious ceremony went on some wine was drunk, rings were exchanged, a glass was broken and after that everybody came up to congratulate the newlyweds. After the ceremony dinner, dessert, drinking and dancing took over the night and everybody really enjoyed themselves. When we came back home we were completely spent and some people even woke up with some muscle fever on friday=)
Later on friday me and Adi went to the final CISV Haifa Meeting of this term. We meet some people played some games and just talked about different things. After the meeting was done we went to a sushi-bar together with Gil and Dor to have dinner, it was really nice. On saturday me and Adi went home to Iris to help her prepare the invitations for the Open Day for the CISV-village here in Israel this summer. We prepared some 300 envelopes with an invitation and a map so hopefully if you live in Israel one will arrive to you soon. Later in the day me and Adi took a sherut(minibus-taxi) to Tel Aviv, we couldn't take the train or the regular bus as it was shabbat. We went to Tel Aviv to meet with Vinh from Denmark who was here on a seminar for work. Vinh is a good CISV-friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while so it was nice meeting him. We all meet to have dinner in a restaurant in Tel Aviv and had a really good night. At the dinner also Raz, Nir and friend of theres were present together with Yael who staffed the seminar-camp in Israel with me last year. Me and Adi slept at Razs place and sense it was sunday Adi had to go to her base in the morning. I meet up with Adi for lunch and then I started a little trip for myself. The goal was to get from the Azraeli-mall to the beach and after asking some nice people about what bus to take I was successful and ended up at the beach resting for some hours before me and Adi took the train to Netanya. In Netanya we meet up with Maya and some other people who were doing a benefit-show to raise money for the CISV-village this summer. It was a successful evening and we did not get home until midnight and we fell asleep fast.
Today I have finaly finalsed all the papers for the University I believe and I will hand them in tomorrow and then I will hopefully get more information on what the next step is. On another note so far the World Cup has been a little of a disappointment but it looks like its picking up so hopefully todays games will be better.
Til you read again,
Carl
Monday 21 June 2010
Sunday 13 June 2010
Bachelor Party and other fun things...
Hey all,
So another week has passed here in Haifa and some news things have happend. When I stopped writing last time I told you I was heading to Tel Aviv for a musical and here the story of what happend. I took the bus to the train station with the help of map that Adi made for me, some broken hebrew also helped me buy a bus ticket. The train to Tel Aviv take around 1 hour when I got there Raz picked me up and we went to pick up our tickets and get some food. Like a half hour before the show Adi came to join us. If you havent seen Avenue Q, which was the name of the musical, you should its awesome! The characters are hilarious and songs are lots of fun. Razs boyfriend Nir played two of roles and did an awesome job. Me and Adi spent the night on Nir's couch and in the morning Adi went to her base while I was still sleeping. When Raz woke me up it was around 11 and we had to leave as she had to get to work and I needed to go back to Haifa. On my way to train station I texted Adi and we decided to have lunch together before I left. It was really nice. Later I took the train back to Haifa and again with some broken hebrew I managed to catch the right bus to Denia, the part of Haifa were we live.
On Wednesday I was back in Tel Aviv as I needed a doctor to fill out a medical form for my application to the Summer Ulpan at the Haifa University. We tried finding doctors that could do it in Haifa but no luck, they were either to greedy or didn't have the possibility to do it. Maya drove me and Adi to Tel Aviv as she needed to go to the American Embassy to get a travel-visa for an upcoming trip to Alaska. Before Maya was finished at the Embassy me and Adi could have lunch again in Tel Aviv =)
On friday I went to the Kineret with Shay and some of his friends for his Bachelor Party. We put up some tents and got a a bbq going just on the beach of the Kineret. The Kineret is the biggest fresh water lake in Israel and it was nice to swim in water that was not salty. The night was spent eating and drinking and having a really nice time talking about many different things and the upcoming wedding on thursday. On Saturday morning we drove back to Haifa and came just in time for Shabbat-lunch =) The rest of the day me and Adi spent cleaning the AC in our room that has started to leak water for some reason, however cleaning it did not solve the problem, sitting in this room without and AC almost makes me wish that we could borros some winter winds from Sweden to cool down.
Today I also finalized and handed in my application to join the Summer Ulpan at the University of Haifa. During an Ulpan you learn hebrew but also about the life and culture here in Israel. Hopefully I'll be accepted and then classes would start on the 5th of July. As most of you know I also enjoy watching and playing football and now as the World Cup has started I'm glued to the tv whenever there is a game on Today im planning on watching Algeria vs. Slovenia, Serbia vs. Ghana and later in the evening Germany vs. Australia.
Til you read again,
Have fun,
Carl
So another week has passed here in Haifa and some news things have happend. When I stopped writing last time I told you I was heading to Tel Aviv for a musical and here the story of what happend. I took the bus to the train station with the help of map that Adi made for me, some broken hebrew also helped me buy a bus ticket. The train to Tel Aviv take around 1 hour when I got there Raz picked me up and we went to pick up our tickets and get some food. Like a half hour before the show Adi came to join us. If you havent seen Avenue Q, which was the name of the musical, you should its awesome! The characters are hilarious and songs are lots of fun. Razs boyfriend Nir played two of roles and did an awesome job. Me and Adi spent the night on Nir's couch and in the morning Adi went to her base while I was still sleeping. When Raz woke me up it was around 11 and we had to leave as she had to get to work and I needed to go back to Haifa. On my way to train station I texted Adi and we decided to have lunch together before I left. It was really nice. Later I took the train back to Haifa and again with some broken hebrew I managed to catch the right bus to Denia, the part of Haifa were we live.
On Wednesday I was back in Tel Aviv as I needed a doctor to fill out a medical form for my application to the Summer Ulpan at the Haifa University. We tried finding doctors that could do it in Haifa but no luck, they were either to greedy or didn't have the possibility to do it. Maya drove me and Adi to Tel Aviv as she needed to go to the American Embassy to get a travel-visa for an upcoming trip to Alaska. Before Maya was finished at the Embassy me and Adi could have lunch again in Tel Aviv =)
On friday I went to the Kineret with Shay and some of his friends for his Bachelor Party. We put up some tents and got a a bbq going just on the beach of the Kineret. The Kineret is the biggest fresh water lake in Israel and it was nice to swim in water that was not salty. The night was spent eating and drinking and having a really nice time talking about many different things and the upcoming wedding on thursday. On Saturday morning we drove back to Haifa and came just in time for Shabbat-lunch =) The rest of the day me and Adi spent cleaning the AC in our room that has started to leak water for some reason, however cleaning it did not solve the problem, sitting in this room without and AC almost makes me wish that we could borros some winter winds from Sweden to cool down.
Today I also finalized and handed in my application to join the Summer Ulpan at the University of Haifa. During an Ulpan you learn hebrew but also about the life and culture here in Israel. Hopefully I'll be accepted and then classes would start on the 5th of July. As most of you know I also enjoy watching and playing football and now as the World Cup has started I'm glued to the tv whenever there is a game on Today im planning on watching Algeria vs. Slovenia, Serbia vs. Ghana and later in the evening Germany vs. Australia.
Til you read again,
Have fun,
Carl
Sunday 6 June 2010
Back in Israel =)
Hey All,
So now after little more then a week in Sweden I'm back in Haifa together with Adi =). The trip here was an interesting one, I took the plane from Gothenburg to Riga in Latvia. Latvia is a place I've never been to before but just visiting the airport doesn't count as a visit to the country in my book, so you could say I spent 7 hours in limbo. After a longtime at the airport we boarded the plane to Tel Aviv and landed at 4.10 am local time. Adi was at the airport to pick me up and we took the train to Haifa and slept for a few hours and then headed out to do some errands. Yesterday we went and visited Raz to hang out and get some dinner which was really nice.
Its interesting to be back in this place considering what has been going on the past weeks in waters outside of Gaza and Israel. The news you read in Sweden and the news you read here are very different also the discussions about what really happend and what was/is right and wrong are also different. Its hard for me to keep my head straight in this mess but one thing is for sure I really don't envy the people who are really caught up in this mess.
Today I'm going to take care of some things that were left behind when I left and maybe ill go for a run since the sun is actually covered by some clouds. Tomorrow I'm going to Tel Aviv to watch a musical play called Avenue Q with Raz and some other friends, unfortunately Adi cant come which sucks. I'm also looking into applying for the Summer Ulpan here at the Haifa University to learn hebrew and some more about this country. Also today is the 6th of June =) Happy Independence Day Sweden!
Til you read again,
Have fun
So now after little more then a week in Sweden I'm back in Haifa together with Adi =). The trip here was an interesting one, I took the plane from Gothenburg to Riga in Latvia. Latvia is a place I've never been to before but just visiting the airport doesn't count as a visit to the country in my book, so you could say I spent 7 hours in limbo. After a longtime at the airport we boarded the plane to Tel Aviv and landed at 4.10 am local time. Adi was at the airport to pick me up and we took the train to Haifa and slept for a few hours and then headed out to do some errands. Yesterday we went and visited Raz to hang out and get some dinner which was really nice.
Its interesting to be back in this place considering what has been going on the past weeks in waters outside of Gaza and Israel. The news you read in Sweden and the news you read here are very different also the discussions about what really happend and what was/is right and wrong are also different. Its hard for me to keep my head straight in this mess but one thing is for sure I really don't envy the people who are really caught up in this mess.
Today I'm going to take care of some things that were left behind when I left and maybe ill go for a run since the sun is actually covered by some clouds. Tomorrow I'm going to Tel Aviv to watch a musical play called Avenue Q with Raz and some other friends, unfortunately Adi cant come which sucks. I'm also looking into applying for the Summer Ulpan here at the Haifa University to learn hebrew and some more about this country. Also today is the 6th of June =) Happy Independence Day Sweden!
Til you read again,
Have fun
Tuesday 1 June 2010
Sweden
Hey all,
So the past days I've been back in Sweden doing many different things and here comes the story of some of them. I arrived back in Sweden on monday after an interesting trip with KLM, where the K does not stand for K(c)ommunication. We flew out of Tel Aviv 30 mins late and that made me miss my connecting flight in Amsterdam, funny thing is that the people on the first flight said there is no way I could make it to the other flight and told me to go to KLM-desk. At this desk I was told that I easily could have made that flight if I wanted so the K(c)ommunicaiton between the KLM in air and on ground are not working to well. So this gave me some extra 3 hours on Schipol, which were spent eating lunch and looking at expensive things.
On Wednesday I went to meet an old friend in the city where I grew up, Borås. We had a fun day and evening cooking food and catching up on the past months. The day after I continued my friend tour a little more west to the city of Jököping were another friend of mine lived. We also caught up on the past months and watched some movies. On Friday I was back in Göteborg and in the evening I met up with some old friends at bar in the center of town. We sat outside in the sunshine as it kept on shining almost the entire evening until we got cold and went inside the bar instead.
On Saturday morning me, my brother and dad packed ourselves into the car and drove to Linköping, where my cousins lives. My mom was already there as she was working in Stockholm the day before. We drove there since my youngest cousin was celebrating his first communion, the protestant-Christian version of a Bar Mitzva sort of. First we went to the church for the service and in the afternoon and evening there was a party at their house with family and friends. The next morning my dad took the train to the airport as he is now finally in China, earlier he was stopped by ash from the volcano in Iceland. After he left me, my brother and my mum drove back to Göteborg. In the evening me and my brother went to a bar to meet some old friends and catch up on the past month.
On monday I woke up read the news and went back to bed as the news I read was not the news I wanted but the once I had predicted the day before. Now we'll see what the end of this tragic event will be but one thing is for sure...don't believe the hyped up scrap-crap-media and read something else and hope for an investigation that is free from any bias opinions or conclusions. On another note I'll be back in Israel early friday morning YEAY!
til you read again,
have fun!
So the past days I've been back in Sweden doing many different things and here comes the story of some of them. I arrived back in Sweden on monday after an interesting trip with KLM, where the K does not stand for K(c)ommunication. We flew out of Tel Aviv 30 mins late and that made me miss my connecting flight in Amsterdam, funny thing is that the people on the first flight said there is no way I could make it to the other flight and told me to go to KLM-desk. At this desk I was told that I easily could have made that flight if I wanted so the K(c)ommunicaiton between the KLM in air and on ground are not working to well. So this gave me some extra 3 hours on Schipol, which were spent eating lunch and looking at expensive things.
On Wednesday I went to meet an old friend in the city where I grew up, Borås. We had a fun day and evening cooking food and catching up on the past months. The day after I continued my friend tour a little more west to the city of Jököping were another friend of mine lived. We also caught up on the past months and watched some movies. On Friday I was back in Göteborg and in the evening I met up with some old friends at bar in the center of town. We sat outside in the sunshine as it kept on shining almost the entire evening until we got cold and went inside the bar instead.
On Saturday morning me, my brother and dad packed ourselves into the car and drove to Linköping, where my cousins lives. My mom was already there as she was working in Stockholm the day before. We drove there since my youngest cousin was celebrating his first communion, the protestant-Christian version of a Bar Mitzva sort of. First we went to the church for the service and in the afternoon and evening there was a party at their house with family and friends. The next morning my dad took the train to the airport as he is now finally in China, earlier he was stopped by ash from the volcano in Iceland. After he left me, my brother and my mum drove back to Göteborg. In the evening me and my brother went to a bar to meet some old friends and catch up on the past month.
On monday I woke up read the news and went back to bed as the news I read was not the news I wanted but the once I had predicted the day before. Now we'll see what the end of this tragic event will be but one thing is for sure...don't believe the hyped up scrap-crap-media and read something else and hope for an investigation that is free from any bias opinions or conclusions. On another note I'll be back in Israel early friday morning YEAY!
til you read again,
have fun!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)