Frank Turner - I'm Disappeared
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFLVlvj9osk
Friday, 8 July 2011
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Yello....
Hi all,
This seems to become sort of a monthly thing....no idea why. Anyways loads of stuff has happend sense the last post one of the more cool thing were that me and Adi and two other friends saw Bob Dylan live in Tel Aviv some two weeks ago. Dylan live is a concept that very few people know and which is why most ppl walk away from their first concert very disappointed. First of Dylan him self has passed his 70th birthday by now and as such his voice is not what it has been. Second Dylan does not speek to the crowd during the concert no Hi, no Bye and no requests thats how its been for a long time and that is how it will continue. Third Dylan will play the songs he wants in the way he wants which means that sometimes you will hear a song like Blowing in the wind like 10 times the speed it was originally written in. So you can see the problem in this going to his concert believing that you will hear him like he sounds on the old records and recordings from the 60ties and 70ties you will not get what you want, not even close. But if you on the other hand have seen live before and you are aware of this Dylan Live becomes something really great as you get hear 15 old songs in 15 new and different ways cause that just how brilliant Dylan is a musician. The general public might see this as not to beneficiary for his carrear or a good way to get and new fans but that has probably never been what he wants anyway. I saw a documentary this year about the first Live-tour he did after going from acoustic to electric together with the Band. This documentary was filmed by the Bands drummer and in the end interviewer asked him what Dylan thought about getting booed and being called a traitor etc. he answer was something like "I dont think he cared, there is something about him that you have to understand, Dylan never played for the crowd, Dylan played for Dylan and if you didn't like what you heard you dont need to come next time", egoistic person probably but most great musicians are. So in my and some other 500 ppl opinion Dylan Live in Tel Aviv was awesome! the other 20.000 did not agree =)
Otherwise life just kind of keeps on rolling I go to work in the week, me and Adi and friends do stuf in the weekend, like go to the movies, hike, cook go to restaurants etc. Life here has become "regular" maybe thats why I also not write as much anymore, cause what was strange and unusual before is now the norm. Believe me there things that are reeeeal strange and unusual toa Swede/european down here but its not as surprising any more. On another note I've been able to listen to a few football-games from the Swedish League and my team Elfsborg are doing pretty well and now aslo the qualification for the Euro-league has started. Elfsborg are in the first qualifying round and they have already beat their opponent Fola Esch from Luxembourg with 4-0 so they are basically through to the next round, just need to go down to Luxembourg and play a decent game next week.
As many of you who are reading this blog might be aware of the fact that another "Freedom Flottila"(Ship to Gaza) is heading this way and the debate here in Israel is interesting. If you listen to the government and Netanyahu there is no question the boats will be stopped if they try to enter the waters outside of coast of Gaza and hopefully be seized in a more non-violent way then lasttime(they have apparently now trained for these sorts of mission and have new boat seizing equipment). However there are also many debtors etc who call government to let the boats through and then do a thorough check once the boats dock, which in my opinion does not sound to bad as then both sides will get a little bit of what they want. Another interesting thing on this matter is that the border between Gaza and Egypt is now "open" for most goods and many people, to move over the borders so Gaza is now not as closed of as it has been. Many debtors in Israel are also asking the question why there is no such thing as "Ship to Libya" or "Ship to Syria" as these countries and its people are as of now and as of the past 6 months maybe in more dier need for certain supplies than Gaza is. If this is true I dont know since I have no stats on living conditions in either country but its seems like a fair question to me and with this little political discussion we finish this blog. if you feel like arguing with me or questioning what I wrote, you can call me, email me or Skype me.
Til you read again,
Carl
This seems to become sort of a monthly thing....no idea why. Anyways loads of stuff has happend sense the last post one of the more cool thing were that me and Adi and two other friends saw Bob Dylan live in Tel Aviv some two weeks ago. Dylan live is a concept that very few people know and which is why most ppl walk away from their first concert very disappointed. First of Dylan him self has passed his 70th birthday by now and as such his voice is not what it has been. Second Dylan does not speek to the crowd during the concert no Hi, no Bye and no requests thats how its been for a long time and that is how it will continue. Third Dylan will play the songs he wants in the way he wants which means that sometimes you will hear a song like Blowing in the wind like 10 times the speed it was originally written in. So you can see the problem in this going to his concert believing that you will hear him like he sounds on the old records and recordings from the 60ties and 70ties you will not get what you want, not even close. But if you on the other hand have seen live before and you are aware of this Dylan Live becomes something really great as you get hear 15 old songs in 15 new and different ways cause that just how brilliant Dylan is a musician. The general public might see this as not to beneficiary for his carrear or a good way to get and new fans but that has probably never been what he wants anyway. I saw a documentary this year about the first Live-tour he did after going from acoustic to electric together with the Band. This documentary was filmed by the Bands drummer and in the end interviewer asked him what Dylan thought about getting booed and being called a traitor etc. he answer was something like "I dont think he cared, there is something about him that you have to understand, Dylan never played for the crowd, Dylan played for Dylan and if you didn't like what you heard you dont need to come next time", egoistic person probably but most great musicians are. So in my and some other 500 ppl opinion Dylan Live in Tel Aviv was awesome! the other 20.000 did not agree =)
Otherwise life just kind of keeps on rolling I go to work in the week, me and Adi and friends do stuf in the weekend, like go to the movies, hike, cook go to restaurants etc. Life here has become "regular" maybe thats why I also not write as much anymore, cause what was strange and unusual before is now the norm. Believe me there things that are reeeeal strange and unusual toa Swede/european down here but its not as surprising any more. On another note I've been able to listen to a few football-games from the Swedish League and my team Elfsborg are doing pretty well and now aslo the qualification for the Euro-league has started. Elfsborg are in the first qualifying round and they have already beat their opponent Fola Esch from Luxembourg with 4-0 so they are basically through to the next round, just need to go down to Luxembourg and play a decent game next week.
As many of you who are reading this blog might be aware of the fact that another "Freedom Flottila"(Ship to Gaza) is heading this way and the debate here in Israel is interesting. If you listen to the government and Netanyahu there is no question the boats will be stopped if they try to enter the waters outside of coast of Gaza and hopefully be seized in a more non-violent way then lasttime(they have apparently now trained for these sorts of mission and have new boat seizing equipment). However there are also many debtors etc who call government to let the boats through and then do a thorough check once the boats dock, which in my opinion does not sound to bad as then both sides will get a little bit of what they want. Another interesting thing on this matter is that the border between Gaza and Egypt is now "open" for most goods and many people, to move over the borders so Gaza is now not as closed of as it has been. Many debtors in Israel are also asking the question why there is no such thing as "Ship to Libya" or "Ship to Syria" as these countries and its people are as of now and as of the past 6 months maybe in more dier need for certain supplies than Gaza is. If this is true I dont know since I have no stats on living conditions in either country but its seems like a fair question to me and with this little political discussion we finish this blog. if you feel like arguing with me or questioning what I wrote, you can call me, email me or Skype me.
Til you read again,
Carl
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Fom Israel to Sweden and back again!
Hey all,
Again the blog seemed to have slipped out of my hands...whoops! Anyhow last time I mentioned that I was going back to Sweden for my brother, Axel's, graduation. In some way the graduation from High School/Gymnasium has become more of a celebration than any other graduation from any other school level in Sweden, how that happend I have no idea, if someone has an idea please enlighten me. So on early sunday two weeks ago Adi drove me to the station and I hopped on the train to Ben Gurion airport to fly with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul to Sweden. This time it was my turn to be extra checked at Ben Gurion, which means they open your check in bag and check your carry on extra carefully. This resulted in that my non-working laptop battery needed to go on an extra check and arrive some days later as its not working at all anymore, which I guess seemed mysterious to the border control. Anyhow I got to Gothenburg mid-day on Sunday the 29th of May and was met by my dad and brother. We went back to the apartment and that day was spent talking and organizing boxes of my old stuff, throwing some away and moving the rest to a different storage room.
On monday I met up with an old classmate of mine, Ida. We spent a day in Gothenburg talking about old memories and the future while eating lunch, ice-cream, getting a hair-cut, searching for envelopes and getting a Graduation present for my brother. Later in the afternoon Ida jumped on the buss back to her University town to back up her apartment for the summer. I went back to my parents place and had a nice evening. Tuesday was spent buying, cooking and organizing for my brothers Graduation which happend on the Wednesday. All of us in the family worked hard and fell asleep fast that evening. On Wednesday my grandmother, my aunt and cousins and other friends of the family arrived to Gothenburg and we went to my brothers school to wait for them to run out of the building to sing the student song and then jump on to the truck that would drive the students all over town so that they could have a great time and tell the world that they graduated which is a fun Swedish tradition. As we were standing there waiting for Axel to come out we had flowers, gifts and big sign with a picture of him when is fiver years old, so that he could find us in the mess of other parents, sibling and relatives. Then Axels class came out of the building screaming, jumping and being allover happy. They sang the student song and then all the students ran to their families. We congratulated Axel and hung flowers around him which is also tradition, he was wearing a nice new suit and his student-hat, which is also tradition. Then all the 120 something students jumped up on the truck and started singing and screaming and the truck drove of to make a tour of Gothenburg. The rest of us drove back home and prepared the party. Later people started arriving and the entire afternoon and evening was filled with nice talks, food and drinks. Axel came home to the party and we had a toast and then later he left for the student-party in the city. Later me and my cousin also headed into town to meet up with some friends to party and do some drinking and talking.
On thursday I meet up with another friend, Erik, We had a day of playing Kubb, BBQing and as well talking about memories and the future. We also go to watch the swedish version of Big Brother which sucked just as much as the israeli one, so conclusion understanding what they say does not make that program any more fun. On friday I went back to me parents apartment and started packing my bag again as I was leavning mid-day saturday for Isreal again. In the bag I packed my clothes, some old stuff that I found and loads of chocolate, candy-cars and kabamoose. In the evening me, my dad and my mum jumped on our bikes and went to the ferry that took us across the river to the other-side of Gothenburg. When then rode our bikes to a nice restaurant were we met up with my sister, my brother had already left for Greece with his friends. After a very nice meal and conversations we rode our bikes back and me my dad watched the last half of the football match between Sweden and Moldova,Sweden won 4-1. On saturday my parents drove me to the airport and I jumped on the flight back to Israel, where Omri picked me up. But more about that later as this post is by now pretty long.
Til you read again,
Carl
Again the blog seemed to have slipped out of my hands...whoops! Anyhow last time I mentioned that I was going back to Sweden for my brother, Axel's, graduation. In some way the graduation from High School/Gymnasium has become more of a celebration than any other graduation from any other school level in Sweden, how that happend I have no idea, if someone has an idea please enlighten me. So on early sunday two weeks ago Adi drove me to the station and I hopped on the train to Ben Gurion airport to fly with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul to Sweden. This time it was my turn to be extra checked at Ben Gurion, which means they open your check in bag and check your carry on extra carefully. This resulted in that my non-working laptop battery needed to go on an extra check and arrive some days later as its not working at all anymore, which I guess seemed mysterious to the border control. Anyhow I got to Gothenburg mid-day on Sunday the 29th of May and was met by my dad and brother. We went back to the apartment and that day was spent talking and organizing boxes of my old stuff, throwing some away and moving the rest to a different storage room.
On monday I met up with an old classmate of mine, Ida. We spent a day in Gothenburg talking about old memories and the future while eating lunch, ice-cream, getting a hair-cut, searching for envelopes and getting a Graduation present for my brother. Later in the afternoon Ida jumped on the buss back to her University town to back up her apartment for the summer. I went back to my parents place and had a nice evening. Tuesday was spent buying, cooking and organizing for my brothers Graduation which happend on the Wednesday. All of us in the family worked hard and fell asleep fast that evening. On Wednesday my grandmother, my aunt and cousins and other friends of the family arrived to Gothenburg and we went to my brothers school to wait for them to run out of the building to sing the student song and then jump on to the truck that would drive the students all over town so that they could have a great time and tell the world that they graduated which is a fun Swedish tradition. As we were standing there waiting for Axel to come out we had flowers, gifts and big sign with a picture of him when is fiver years old, so that he could find us in the mess of other parents, sibling and relatives. Then Axels class came out of the building screaming, jumping and being allover happy. They sang the student song and then all the students ran to their families. We congratulated Axel and hung flowers around him which is also tradition, he was wearing a nice new suit and his student-hat, which is also tradition. Then all the 120 something students jumped up on the truck and started singing and screaming and the truck drove of to make a tour of Gothenburg. The rest of us drove back home and prepared the party. Later people started arriving and the entire afternoon and evening was filled with nice talks, food and drinks. Axel came home to the party and we had a toast and then later he left for the student-party in the city. Later me and my cousin also headed into town to meet up with some friends to party and do some drinking and talking.
On thursday I meet up with another friend, Erik, We had a day of playing Kubb, BBQing and as well talking about memories and the future. We also go to watch the swedish version of Big Brother which sucked just as much as the israeli one, so conclusion understanding what they say does not make that program any more fun. On friday I went back to me parents apartment and started packing my bag again as I was leavning mid-day saturday for Isreal again. In the bag I packed my clothes, some old stuff that I found and loads of chocolate, candy-cars and kabamoose. In the evening me, my dad and my mum jumped on our bikes and went to the ferry that took us across the river to the other-side of Gothenburg. When then rode our bikes to a nice restaurant were we met up with my sister, my brother had already left for Greece with his friends. After a very nice meal and conversations we rode our bikes back and me my dad watched the last half of the football match between Sweden and Moldova,Sweden won 4-1. On saturday my parents drove me to the airport and I jumped on the flight back to Israel, where Omri picked me up. But more about that later as this post is by now pretty long.
Til you read again,
Carl
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Back to work...
Hi all,
Last time I wrote me and Adi were getting ready to pack our bags and leave for a nice vacation to Portugal. We are now back in Israel and back at work since Sunday. The vacation itself was really awesome. We met up with 6 other people from the seminar camp in 2009 and traveled around a little bit in Portugal. We saw Lisbon, Porto, Averio, Caiscais and some other small places. Overall Portugal has some really nice architecture and cool buildings and churches. In Portugal they also have good food(read all kinds of yummy meat, that is hard to get here in Israel) as well as good drinks like Port-wine and Ginja(some cherry liqueur, that I didnt try but all said it was good). They also have nice pastries and desserts like Ovos Moles and some other that I cant remember the name of right now. Portugal is also a fairly cheap country to eat and shop in compared to Israel and Sweden which was good for us. As we also slept in our Portugese-friends homes we also saved some cash and got to see how the portugese ppl live, which is a little different from what I'm used to. Many families have maids that cooks and cleans for the family while they are away at school or work. Which I guess is good but just a little unusual to me.
We spent almost 10 days together with our friends touring Portugals cities and some of its bars and had a lot of fun. After these 10 days when they all had gone home to their countries me and Adi took the bus to a peninsula-city called Peniche were we had booked a room in a hotel for the last two nights. In Peniche we rented bikes and biked around the peninsula and its beaches, we also fell asleep on the beach and got a little burnt as the weather was mischievous. Cold and nice wind that made you feel nice and not warm but the sun was still burning hard, even thou both of us had sunscreen we got burnt. The last day in Peniche we took the local-buss to a nearby town called Obidos. Obidos is a really old and nice walled city from the the early roman period. It has many different spots to visit and we bought a map of the city and walked all over it. When we were done we took the bus back to Peniche and had a nice final dinner in a fish-restaurant. I ate calamari and fish while Adi had two delicious Octopuses. When then made our way back to the hotel and packed our bags and fell asleep.
Next morning we took the bus back to Lisbon and meet up with our Portuguese friends that took us to the airport. At the airport we ran into some trouble as the lady behind the counter couldn't check us or our bags all the way to Tel Aviv, this was a problem as we only had 1 hour of layover in Barcelona. We argued with her and her manager but got nowhere except that we were informed that we weren't the only ones with the same problem. In Lisbon we ran to the transfer desk an got our boarding passes however the bags were another problem so us and two other passengers who were going to Tel Aviv as well started to argue with the clerk there and he called in his manager who said she would help us and started to talk on the radio to get our bags to the plane headed for Tel Aviv, after some time she said it was done so we boarded the plane that we were told had our bags on it but when we landed in Tel Aviv no bags. So for reference don't fly TAP in combination with Spanair or book trough Mona Tours you will run into trouble. Now our bags are here but still somewhere in this mess someone lied and screwed us over.
On another happier note I'm coming to Sweden soon, I'll land in Gothenburg on the 29th of May and stay for a week to celebrate my brothers graduation and meet family and friends. Also last night me and Adi booked tickets to see Bob Dylan live when he comes to Israel in the end of June. For those of you who know me you know that I'm a big Dylan fan so that made me real happy. Well this became a rather long post....and now I have to get back to work. See all of you soon.
Til you read again,
Peace,
Carl
Last time I wrote me and Adi were getting ready to pack our bags and leave for a nice vacation to Portugal. We are now back in Israel and back at work since Sunday. The vacation itself was really awesome. We met up with 6 other people from the seminar camp in 2009 and traveled around a little bit in Portugal. We saw Lisbon, Porto, Averio, Caiscais and some other small places. Overall Portugal has some really nice architecture and cool buildings and churches. In Portugal they also have good food(read all kinds of yummy meat, that is hard to get here in Israel) as well as good drinks like Port-wine and Ginja(some cherry liqueur, that I didnt try but all said it was good). They also have nice pastries and desserts like Ovos Moles and some other that I cant remember the name of right now. Portugal is also a fairly cheap country to eat and shop in compared to Israel and Sweden which was good for us. As we also slept in our Portugese-friends homes we also saved some cash and got to see how the portugese ppl live, which is a little different from what I'm used to. Many families have maids that cooks and cleans for the family while they are away at school or work. Which I guess is good but just a little unusual to me.
We spent almost 10 days together with our friends touring Portugals cities and some of its bars and had a lot of fun. After these 10 days when they all had gone home to their countries me and Adi took the bus to a peninsula-city called Peniche were we had booked a room in a hotel for the last two nights. In Peniche we rented bikes and biked around the peninsula and its beaches, we also fell asleep on the beach and got a little burnt as the weather was mischievous. Cold and nice wind that made you feel nice and not warm but the sun was still burning hard, even thou both of us had sunscreen we got burnt. The last day in Peniche we took the local-buss to a nearby town called Obidos. Obidos is a really old and nice walled city from the the early roman period. It has many different spots to visit and we bought a map of the city and walked all over it. When we were done we took the bus back to Peniche and had a nice final dinner in a fish-restaurant. I ate calamari and fish while Adi had two delicious Octopuses. When then made our way back to the hotel and packed our bags and fell asleep.
Next morning we took the bus back to Lisbon and meet up with our Portuguese friends that took us to the airport. At the airport we ran into some trouble as the lady behind the counter couldn't check us or our bags all the way to Tel Aviv, this was a problem as we only had 1 hour of layover in Barcelona. We argued with her and her manager but got nowhere except that we were informed that we weren't the only ones with the same problem. In Lisbon we ran to the transfer desk an got our boarding passes however the bags were another problem so us and two other passengers who were going to Tel Aviv as well started to argue with the clerk there and he called in his manager who said she would help us and started to talk on the radio to get our bags to the plane headed for Tel Aviv, after some time she said it was done so we boarded the plane that we were told had our bags on it but when we landed in Tel Aviv no bags. So for reference don't fly TAP in combination with Spanair or book trough Mona Tours you will run into trouble. Now our bags are here but still somewhere in this mess someone lied and screwed us over.
On another happier note I'm coming to Sweden soon, I'll land in Gothenburg on the 29th of May and stay for a week to celebrate my brothers graduation and meet family and friends. Also last night me and Adi booked tickets to see Bob Dylan live when he comes to Israel in the end of June. For those of you who know me you know that I'm a big Dylan fan so that made me real happy. Well this became a rather long post....and now I have to get back to work. See all of you soon.
Til you read again,
Peace,
Carl
Friday, 15 April 2011
packing, packing, packing....
Hey all,
So yesterday I had my last day at work for the coming two weeks as we are now on vacation =) In Israel its Pesach and in most of Europe Easters is coming so me and Adi took some extra days and made a longer vacation. We are going to Portugal to meet up with some friends from the Seminar on sunday so right now we are packing, making laundry and packing some more. In Portugal the sun i shining and its warm and nice, which is a good change from the last weeks weather here.
On another note apparently the Bieber-fever has reached Israel as well. Last night when I took the train home from work the train was attacked by some 500 12-15 year old girls who had just been to his concert in Tel Aviv. This made the train warm, sweaty and late not the best combination and as we stepped of the the train in Haifa it also started smoking and burning. Something that is not to unusual in Israel the past couple of months as there has been a few train fires and collisions. In Sweden the trains dont run cause its to cold here they dont run because they are to old or its to warm outside....how about inventing a train that is weather resistant? or is that to expensive maybe? but somehow I guess in the end it will serve the better cause as they are safer.
Also the swedish Allsvenska has started and Elfsborg has so far one win and one loss. However they have a pretty rough start against all teams that are thought to be in the top when the series end. Last night the Stanley Cup playoffs also started and Montreal are playing Boston, an original six rivalry =) and it couldn't have gotten a better start 2-0 to the Habs at the Boston Garden! Thats all for now,
Til you read again,
Carl
So yesterday I had my last day at work for the coming two weeks as we are now on vacation =) In Israel its Pesach and in most of Europe Easters is coming so me and Adi took some extra days and made a longer vacation. We are going to Portugal to meet up with some friends from the Seminar on sunday so right now we are packing, making laundry and packing some more. In Portugal the sun i shining and its warm and nice, which is a good change from the last weeks weather here.
On another note apparently the Bieber-fever has reached Israel as well. Last night when I took the train home from work the train was attacked by some 500 12-15 year old girls who had just been to his concert in Tel Aviv. This made the train warm, sweaty and late not the best combination and as we stepped of the the train in Haifa it also started smoking and burning. Something that is not to unusual in Israel the past couple of months as there has been a few train fires and collisions. In Sweden the trains dont run cause its to cold here they dont run because they are to old or its to warm outside....how about inventing a train that is weather resistant? or is that to expensive maybe? but somehow I guess in the end it will serve the better cause as they are safer.
Also the swedish Allsvenska has started and Elfsborg has so far one win and one loss. However they have a pretty rough start against all teams that are thought to be in the top when the series end. Last night the Stanley Cup playoffs also started and Montreal are playing Boston, an original six rivalry =) and it couldn't have gotten a better start 2-0 to the Habs at the Boston Garden! Thats all for now,
Til you read again,
Carl
Monday, 4 April 2011
Time goes fast...
Hi again,
So I realized that I hadn't made an update here in the blog for some time. Its not because nothing has happend more because of the fact that time has gone by pretty fast. I work all week long and come back to Haifa late at night so during the day there mostly no time to write and in the weekend we are busy with other things.
At work nothing is really new, same procedures as always just that some ppl leave and some new ppl come in. Two weeks ago we had a Company Purim party in Tel Aviv that was a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know what Purim is, you can read about it here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim. What this meant for the party is that everyone dressed up in different customs not to much unlike Halloween but not only in scary customs but also nice an fun ones. For the party each department of the company had also made a funny video, ex. a day at the office, lip-syncing to different songs etc. We in the Poker support made a lip-sync video to Lady Gagas Poker Face and won the second prize in the competition =) The party overall was fun and it was nice to see ppl from work outside of work and with a drink in their hand.
On another note me and Adi today got our tickets to go to Portugal during Easter and meet up with some friends from the seminar camp here in Israel in 2009. Its going to be a good 10-day of fun a relaxation. I've never been to Portugal so if anyone has any recommendations your more then welcome to tell me.
For you swedes back home you might be glad to know that I'm coming to Sweden in the end of May early June for my brothers graduation and to visit you all so If you wanna meet up let me know.
Now I gotta get back to work,
Til you read again,
Peace
Carl
So I realized that I hadn't made an update here in the blog for some time. Its not because nothing has happend more because of the fact that time has gone by pretty fast. I work all week long and come back to Haifa late at night so during the day there mostly no time to write and in the weekend we are busy with other things.
At work nothing is really new, same procedures as always just that some ppl leave and some new ppl come in. Two weeks ago we had a Company Purim party in Tel Aviv that was a lot of fun. For those of you who don't know what Purim is, you can read about it here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purim. What this meant for the party is that everyone dressed up in different customs not to much unlike Halloween but not only in scary customs but also nice an fun ones. For the party each department of the company had also made a funny video, ex. a day at the office, lip-syncing to different songs etc. We in the Poker support made a lip-sync video to Lady Gagas Poker Face and won the second prize in the competition =) The party overall was fun and it was nice to see ppl from work outside of work and with a drink in their hand.
On another note me and Adi today got our tickets to go to Portugal during Easter and meet up with some friends from the seminar camp here in Israel in 2009. Its going to be a good 10-day of fun a relaxation. I've never been to Portugal so if anyone has any recommendations your more then welcome to tell me.
For you swedes back home you might be glad to know that I'm coming to Sweden in the end of May early June for my brothers graduation and to visit you all so If you wanna meet up let me know.
Now I gotta get back to work,
Til you read again,
Peace
Carl
Saturday, 5 March 2011
1 year anniversary and more...
Hey all,
Its been two weeks sense I last wrote and some things have happend. First of all me and Adi had our 1 year anniversary last friday, we went up north to Metula which close to the border with Lebanon. In Metula there is a special place called the Canada Center which is a building full of fun =) dontaed by the jewish communities in Canada. Inside there is a spa, an ice-hockey rink, bowling lane, swimming pool and much more. We went skating which was alot of fun =) It takes me back to the winters on the lake were I grew up playing hockey and skating all day when the ice wasnt to thin. We also bowled some which I wasn't to good at this time...We also visited the SPA got a nice long massage, some time in the sauna and in the Jacuzzi! After a day of fun we went to the Zimmer which I had booked in Kefar Juval. A Zimmer is basically a sort of a luxurious cabin including nice breakfast.
Its been two weeks sense I last wrote and some things have happend. First of all me and Adi had our 1 year anniversary last friday, we went up north to Metula which close to the border with Lebanon. In Metula there is a special place called the Canada Center which is a building full of fun =) dontaed by the jewish communities in Canada. Inside there is a spa, an ice-hockey rink, bowling lane, swimming pool and much more. We went skating which was alot of fun =) It takes me back to the winters on the lake were I grew up playing hockey and skating all day when the ice wasnt to thin. We also bowled some which I wasn't to good at this time...We also visited the SPA got a nice long massage, some time in the sauna and in the Jacuzzi! After a day of fun we went to the Zimmer which I had booked in Kefar Juval. A Zimmer is basically a sort of a luxurious cabin including nice breakfast.
Random people skating at the rink
Our cabin
Our breakfast
On saturday midday we left the nice cabin to go back to Haifa, we stopped in Rosh Pina to try the best sushi in the north at a restaurant called something like Javier. They had good sushi and it also gave us some ideas for our own sushi making. The working week passed on as usual except for the thing that my new cellphone arrived from the UK via Ebay, so now I'm the proud owner of an ZTE Blade/San Francisco running on Googles Android system. I'm still learning all the things about it and I guess it will take some time but right now I'm very satisfied. At work we also recorded a video for a Purim competition so our Support-team plus another team decided to do a lip-sync video to Lady Gagas Pokerface. A cameraman and crew sowed up and we preformed all over the building and hopefully it will win us a nice price =)
This weekend me and Adi made some sushi as usual as well as playing some xbox. Maybe later we will go to the movies and see one of the Oscar-winning movies or just have a nice calm evening here watching the Big Brother or something else.
Til you read again,
Carl
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Eurosport...
Hey All,
Something that I miss about living in a country without vinter or snow is the show "Vintersudion", a swedish tv-show that shows all the vinter-sports from skiing downhil to biathlon to snowboarding. It usually aires in the morning til noon on saturday and sundays and are the perfect thing to watch when its cold, dark and windy outside. However here in Israel we have Eurosport that sometimes show what I like, but there is no studio or any interviews or such things which is boring. Right now I'm actually watching the Mens Downhil WorldCup race, to bad the swedish guy failed to complete the track.
On another note Mubarak has now left office in Egypt and in Israel the talk is on about what will come next. Because when Mubarak was in office they knew what Egypt was and how it operated, they also had a peace treaty with Mubarak. Many here are afraid that with him out of office the peace-treaty will follow and then Israel has lost another "friend" in the area and the risk of war or confrontation would increase. So who comes into office next is closely followed by the media. What I think is that if the new Egypt government wants to keep good relations with the US they peace-treaty will stay in place, but If the realtons to the US is not so important the peace treaty might go out the window or become reformed. Only the future will tell, however when a dictator leaves office its always a good day! Now lets see how the egyptians handle their new found "freedom".
This weekend we havent done to much, yesterday we stayed in and made sushi and watched some tv-shows. I also fixed my xbox so it works again =) So no frustration anymore. Work is all the same nothing new. Later today we have a CISV-activity and then afterwards probably dinner and a movie.
Til you read again,
Carl
Something that I miss about living in a country without vinter or snow is the show "Vintersudion", a swedish tv-show that shows all the vinter-sports from skiing downhil to biathlon to snowboarding. It usually aires in the morning til noon on saturday and sundays and are the perfect thing to watch when its cold, dark and windy outside. However here in Israel we have Eurosport that sometimes show what I like, but there is no studio or any interviews or such things which is boring. Right now I'm actually watching the Mens Downhil WorldCup race, to bad the swedish guy failed to complete the track.
On another note Mubarak has now left office in Egypt and in Israel the talk is on about what will come next. Because when Mubarak was in office they knew what Egypt was and how it operated, they also had a peace treaty with Mubarak. Many here are afraid that with him out of office the peace-treaty will follow and then Israel has lost another "friend" in the area and the risk of war or confrontation would increase. So who comes into office next is closely followed by the media. What I think is that if the new Egypt government wants to keep good relations with the US they peace-treaty will stay in place, but If the realtons to the US is not so important the peace treaty might go out the window or become reformed. Only the future will tell, however when a dictator leaves office its always a good day! Now lets see how the egyptians handle their new found "freedom".
This weekend we havent done to much, yesterday we stayed in and made sushi and watched some tv-shows. I also fixed my xbox so it works again =) So no frustration anymore. Work is all the same nothing new. Later today we have a CISV-activity and then afterwards probably dinner and a movie.
Til you read again,
Carl
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Swedish things on fire...
Hey all,
So first of the IKEA in Netanya burned down to the ground early this morning. Fortunately no one seems to have been in the building at the time so no huma injuries, however everything that was in the store is now ash. They are however going to rebuild as quickly as possible so that the Israelis van get cheap swedish furniture again.
Today we have been with Danits family at a fish restaurant in Bat Galim close to Haifa. This restaurant catches all their fish on their own with their boat. Then they fry the fish in its all with head, fins etc. unless you ask for a file. So today I ate a Dennis fish that looked like it just jumped out of the sea, it was delicious. Yesterday we didnt do to much as the weather outside looked like a swedish fall-storm not to fun to be outside in.
Work is all good and all the same, getting paid this week thou, wehoo! At work Im also learning some small words of hebrew, italian, french, russian and freshing up my german. The train ride to Tel Aviv are alright as I watch shows on my psp or nap if im tiered.
This weekend I've also tried to fix my XBOX, but so far unsuccessful and frustrating. On another note Elfsborg have been playing in the Atlantic Cup in Portugal in the past week as preseason training, beating Helsingborg, Brönby and drawing with Odense earning them the first spot in the tournament and the right to title them selves Atlantic Champions. Also Montreal have been doing pretty well post the Allstar game with a few wins.
Otherwise the most talk the past week has been about Egypt and whatever is going to happen in the future. Israelis in general are afraid that their peace-treaty with Egypt will go out the window with the new constellation in Egypt and leave them basically friend less in the Middle East. There are alot of interesting articles to read more about it on haaretz.com for anyone who's interested. Til you read again.
Have fun,
Carl
So first of the IKEA in Netanya burned down to the ground early this morning. Fortunately no one seems to have been in the building at the time so no huma injuries, however everything that was in the store is now ash. They are however going to rebuild as quickly as possible so that the Israelis van get cheap swedish furniture again.
Today we have been with Danits family at a fish restaurant in Bat Galim close to Haifa. This restaurant catches all their fish on their own with their boat. Then they fry the fish in its all with head, fins etc. unless you ask for a file. So today I ate a Dennis fish that looked like it just jumped out of the sea, it was delicious. Yesterday we didnt do to much as the weather outside looked like a swedish fall-storm not to fun to be outside in.
Work is all good and all the same, getting paid this week thou, wehoo! At work Im also learning some small words of hebrew, italian, french, russian and freshing up my german. The train ride to Tel Aviv are alright as I watch shows on my psp or nap if im tiered.
This weekend I've also tried to fix my XBOX, but so far unsuccessful and frustrating. On another note Elfsborg have been playing in the Atlantic Cup in Portugal in the past week as preseason training, beating Helsingborg, Brönby and drawing with Odense earning them the first spot in the tournament and the right to title them selves Atlantic Champions. Also Montreal have been doing pretty well post the Allstar game with a few wins.
Otherwise the most talk the past week has been about Egypt and whatever is going to happen in the future. Israelis in general are afraid that their peace-treaty with Egypt will go out the window with the new constellation in Egypt and leave them basically friend less in the Middle East. There are alot of interesting articles to read more about it on haaretz.com for anyone who's interested. Til you read again.
Have fun,
Carl
Friday, 28 January 2011
Waka, Waka!
Hey again,
So its hard to update a blog when you are working 45h a week and travelling some 2h to work every day of the week so the only free time you have is the weekend. Then on the weekend you like to do as much things as possible that you dont have time for in the week plus sleep some extra hours. So the blog falls long down on the list of priorities, unfortunately.
Anyways this past two weeks I've been working hard to earn a nice big paycheck at the end of the month so not to much fun to write about. Last weekend me and Adi celebrated 11 months together, which also means that give and take I've been in Israel for 11 months. Time really goes fast. It also means that in some weeks I've been here for almost a year, yet it feels like 2 months or forever. I recognize buss drivers, ppl riding the same buss as me, the train conductors, the ppl who own the restaurants I eat lunch at at work and they all seem to recognize me, not to strange thou as I'm on of the few blond/red haired persons around. Last weekend we also went to a nice Pub outside of Haifa that had a big rectangular bar with many different beers and liquors. I found a beer that looked interesting by name and bought it. It turned out to be made by cherry and as we all know me and cherrys havent always been friends, I was allergic to them as a kid. So I thought that now I was over it but it turned out my stomach was not and I felt not so good for the rest of the evening as the beer wanted to come back out the way it came in. Otherwise a fun night.
This weekend we have so far made Sushi and helped Shai move the last of his and Danit things out of their apartment in the house so that now Guy can start moving in their and when he is done moving we can move in to his old apartment in the house. The new apartment that we will live in has a kitchen/general area, a bathroom and a bedroom. It almost twice the size of what we live on now so it will be very nice. Later today we are going out to meet Noam and one of her army friends in a bar somewhere in the Carmel and this time no cherry beer for me!
Also during the easter/pessach vacations in April me and Adi are going to Portugal for 10 days to meet our old friends from the Seminar Camp and have loads of fun. I've never been to Portugal but it looks like fun.
Til you read again,
Carl
So its hard to update a blog when you are working 45h a week and travelling some 2h to work every day of the week so the only free time you have is the weekend. Then on the weekend you like to do as much things as possible that you dont have time for in the week plus sleep some extra hours. So the blog falls long down on the list of priorities, unfortunately.
Anyways this past two weeks I've been working hard to earn a nice big paycheck at the end of the month so not to much fun to write about. Last weekend me and Adi celebrated 11 months together, which also means that give and take I've been in Israel for 11 months. Time really goes fast. It also means that in some weeks I've been here for almost a year, yet it feels like 2 months or forever. I recognize buss drivers, ppl riding the same buss as me, the train conductors, the ppl who own the restaurants I eat lunch at at work and they all seem to recognize me, not to strange thou as I'm on of the few blond/red haired persons around. Last weekend we also went to a nice Pub outside of Haifa that had a big rectangular bar with many different beers and liquors. I found a beer that looked interesting by name and bought it. It turned out to be made by cherry and as we all know me and cherrys havent always been friends, I was allergic to them as a kid. So I thought that now I was over it but it turned out my stomach was not and I felt not so good for the rest of the evening as the beer wanted to come back out the way it came in. Otherwise a fun night.
This weekend we have so far made Sushi and helped Shai move the last of his and Danit things out of their apartment in the house so that now Guy can start moving in their and when he is done moving we can move in to his old apartment in the house. The new apartment that we will live in has a kitchen/general area, a bathroom and a bedroom. It almost twice the size of what we live on now so it will be very nice. Later today we are going out to meet Noam and one of her army friends in a bar somewhere in the Carmel and this time no cherry beer for me!
Also during the easter/pessach vacations in April me and Adi are going to Portugal for 10 days to meet our old friends from the Seminar Camp and have loads of fun. I've never been to Portugal but it looks like fun.
Til you read again,
Carl
Friday, 14 January 2011
The blog returns...
Hi again,
So the past month quiet a few things have happend. To start of I'm now working fulltime in Tel Aviv as Swedish Support for online gaming. Not really what I'm trained for but so far its been all good, and getting payed is never wrong. It take the train back and forth to Tel Aviv everyday something that would have been less fun unless I remembered that I owned a PSP, a tiny computer/gaming device that you can watch movies and tv-shows as well as surf the net and play games.
This past 10 days my family has also been visiting us and Israel. It's been really nice to see and talk to everyone again, skype is good but not the same thing at all. We saw many different things like the Bahai Gardens, Yichron-Jakov, The Rotschld Museum etc. as well as having dinner here in the house with all of the family and dinner out with some fewer ppl. I also took my borther and sister to some of the pubs here in Haifa. We also met up with Omri the guy from my CISV-interchange in -99, which was really a lot of fun.
Christmas, Hannuka and New Years also passed sense i last wrote and lets just said one thing, there was no snow. However we saw fireworks and had a nice dinner on New Years eve. On Hannukkah which is celebrated over 8 days in early december we had some nice dinners and meet many ppl from different sides of the family. On christmas eve I watched "Karl Bertil Jonssons Jul" on youtube for those of you who are not swedish, this show is a cartoon that is played on tv every christmas eve and most Swedes watch it. It about a 14-year old guy named Karl-Bertil and his idea of bring christmas to the poor. The cartoon is set in the 1940ties in Stockholm and its really nice. It has an english translation on youtube so go looking for it!
Today me and Adi have made sushi and rested from a hard week. Tomorrow we are going out shopping for some fun stuff and maybe a visit to a restaurant or the movies. The blog will be updated more in the future I promise.
Til you read again,
Love,
Carl
So the past month quiet a few things have happend. To start of I'm now working fulltime in Tel Aviv as Swedish Support for online gaming. Not really what I'm trained for but so far its been all good, and getting payed is never wrong. It take the train back and forth to Tel Aviv everyday something that would have been less fun unless I remembered that I owned a PSP, a tiny computer/gaming device that you can watch movies and tv-shows as well as surf the net and play games.
This past 10 days my family has also been visiting us and Israel. It's been really nice to see and talk to everyone again, skype is good but not the same thing at all. We saw many different things like the Bahai Gardens, Yichron-Jakov, The Rotschld Museum etc. as well as having dinner here in the house with all of the family and dinner out with some fewer ppl. I also took my borther and sister to some of the pubs here in Haifa. We also met up with Omri the guy from my CISV-interchange in -99, which was really a lot of fun.
Christmas, Hannuka and New Years also passed sense i last wrote and lets just said one thing, there was no snow. However we saw fireworks and had a nice dinner on New Years eve. On Hannukkah which is celebrated over 8 days in early december we had some nice dinners and meet many ppl from different sides of the family. On christmas eve I watched "Karl Bertil Jonssons Jul" on youtube for those of you who are not swedish, this show is a cartoon that is played on tv every christmas eve and most Swedes watch it. It about a 14-year old guy named Karl-Bertil and his idea of bring christmas to the poor. The cartoon is set in the 1940ties in Stockholm and its really nice. It has an english translation on youtube so go looking for it!
Today me and Adi have made sushi and rested from a hard week. Tomorrow we are going out shopping for some fun stuff and maybe a visit to a restaurant or the movies. The blog will be updated more in the future I promise.
Til you read again,
Love,
Carl
Friday, 3 December 2010
Fire, Fire, Fire
Hey all,
As some of you might now there has been a huge fire raging in the hills southeast of Haifa for the past day and a half. How it started is not all clear but there are some different theories anything from a gang that lit tires to a fire in an illegal dumpingsite that went wrong. Anyhow yesterday morning it started and spread very fast because of the strong winds here and since its been the driest november and summer for many years the forrest lit up like candles. The kibbutz Bet Oren is completely destroyed however it was evacuated in time and no personal injuries has been reported. That was not the luck however for a buss full of prison-personal that were on their way to assist in the evac of the prison in the area. Their buss was caught on the road in a flash fire an the 40 ppl inside didnt stand a chance. The same faith hit the police chief in Haifa when she was on her way to help somewhere and she has burn to roughly 80% of her body. Thats the general news that has been circling all day.
When it comes to us we live very close to the fire and have seen it grow and die for the past day. Its a really tricky thing because of the nature of fire combined with the wind. When Adi came home yesterday we choose to evac ourselves to a friend i northern Haifa close to the beach and there we've spent the day watching the TV for news. Now in the evening we have returned to the house and the fire comes and goes. I will now post a few pictures in chronological order of how it has looked from our neighborhood the past days.
Yesterday night, from a house on the same road as us
Yesterday night, from a house on the same road as us
Yesterday night, from a house on the same road as us
Yesterday night, from a house on the same road as us
Today in the morning from a house close to our house
The planes fighting the fire with sea-water and powder
The planes are from many different countries as Netanyahu has asked for help from abroad.
Another plane
A picture from today afternoon.
So here you can see what we see from the living room and right now it seems that the fires have died a little and the wind might be turning but with mother nature you'll never know. If it comes closer we will leave again. I have more pictures on my cellphone but my bluetooth on the laptop has decided to evac and right now wont work.
Have fun,
Carl
Sunday, 7 November 2010
November...
Hi All,
So this past week not a lot of new things have happend. I've been running, looking for jobs and sent some CV's and learned some hebrew. Today I was also on an job interview for a coffe-shop in one of the neighbourhoods in Haifa. I've never worked in a Coffe-shop before so if I get it it will be an interesting learning experience and I'll get some well needed cash. Its a little frustrating sending CV's and not receiving any answers but that is how it works here in Israel they call you if they need you, not like in Sweden where people confirm emails and then tell you that the position has been filled.
Last night med and Adi went to Noam's house and watched two Israeli movies. The first one was the Bubble from 2007ish. It was about three people living in Tel Aviv on Shenkin Street and their daily life in the "bubble" that exists where day go on living their regular lives until different things and loves interests throw their world-view upside down. Its a really good movie and hard to explain without giving away to much so instead of me writing about it go see it! The other movie was Eskimo Limon (Lemons Popsicle) from 1978. This movie is about three 17-year old guys and their quest to find girls, girlfriends or anything to share their lives with. Its like Grease but without the cars, high-pitched singing and John travolta. Quiet different from the Bubble but still a good movie.
Right now I'm listening to the final game of the Allsvenska and so far its 0-0 which is OK table-wise but finishing with a win is never wrong. During the weekend me and Adi have also started a new puzzle so now infront of me there is a Panorama picture of Harbour in sunset in Brittany in France. Hopefully by the next time I write i'll have something more fun to write about until then Have Fun!,
Carl
Sunday, 31 October 2010
Looking for more jobs...
Hey all,
So I had one swedish-class before the student realized that due to his family situation he couldn't continue. So now I'm back to where I was a few weeks ago but some experiences richer. Maybe Berlitz will give me english-classes later but at the time the demand is low but I'm still a part of their team. The past week another few things have happend. Me and Adi have become Sushi-masters over the past few months and are making sushi on our own at least once a week. We get better at it each week and invent new combinations with different kinds of fish, shellfish and vegetables.
On friday night me and Adi went to the Cinemall in Haifa and saw the movie "You again" a predictable yet fun movie. The problem was the parking tho all the parking houses were full and the regular parking lots were full. So we had to be a little creative and find a piece of ground were we could park and cross our fingers that the parking-police were somewhere else which the fortunately were.
On another note I have started to run again after avoiding it for a few weeks due to the warm weather we've had the past month. Now the weather has cold of a bit and is like swedish summer which is nice for me and a little cold for Adi. Later on today I'll tune into the Swedish Radio to listen to Elfsborg vs. AIK the next to last game of the Allsvenska and 3 points are really important. Across the atlantic this past week has been a good Montreal week winning 4 games in a row until last night when the Panthers ended the streak, but Montreal still remain on top of their division and conference.
Til you read again,
Carl
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Started to work =)
Hey All,
Sorry for not writing for a while, I don't know why I haven't posted anything until now. Today I started working as a swedish teacher at Berlitz, a well known international language learning school. I'm teaching an israeli guy swedish so he can communicate better with his swedish girlfriend and their son. I didn't really know what to expect sense the level of his swedish was sort of unknown to the Berlitz center, so it was a little hard to plan the lesson but it turned out great, so now I know how to continue.
During the time in later september when I wasn't writing in the blog loads things happend and now I will tell one part of the story. Me and Adi decided that we should try to do a hike sense we've done it before on our own and liked it. So we started to scan the net for good hikes in Israel and found the Sea to Sea-hike. This hike takes you from the Mediterranean-sea to the Kinneret-lake in the east of Israel, a hike of some 75 km. We bought a tent, a compass, a map etc and made our way to the shore of the Mediterranean. As its very warm in this country even in september we packed lots of water and sunscreen. We woke up with the sun every morning and went to bed early. The hike took us 4 days and three nights in our tent. We also brought a gas-stove and cooked many different combinations of simple but still tasty food. The hike was in some parts really hard as the weather was warmer then it used to be and the sun shone as hard as it could. The scenery surrounding the hike was really a mix of valleys, roads, mountains, forrest, rivers, dried out rivers and car-roads. We also saw some different animals, but we managed not to meet the evil boars, which was good as they are kind of violent. On the afternoon of day 4 we saw the Kinneret and around 4 o'clock in the afternoon we dropped our bags and ran into the sea =) It was really nice after 4 long hard days of walking.
On another note the NHL has started over in Canada and the US so now I'm watching Montreal-games a few times a week which makes me happy or sad depending on the outcomes of the games. As of now I'm also listening to Elfsborg vs. Djurgården (2-1) in of the last season-games of the Allsvenska. Right now I'm sort of tiered and I need some sleep. I'll keep on updating you ppl more frequently from now on.
Til you read again,
Carl
Wednesday, 6 October 2010
The Blog isn't dead....just resting!
Hey All,
I know I haven't been writing for some weeks its not because a lack things happening rather the other way around. In the coming week I'll update you all on most of it, but as of now I'm again packing my bags and tomorrow I fly back to the Holyland and Adi =). I've really nice week in Sweden reconnecting with old friends from back in the day. I've also spent much with my family and grandma's whom I hadn't seen for a long time. This is all for now I have a bag to pack...
Til you read again,
Carl
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Happy New Year
Hey all,
So this past week has been full of holidays and good food. On Wednesday night it was the Jewsih New Years Eve so a big part of the family gathered here in the house and had a nice dinner filled with songs and laughter, however there were no fireworks....which I find werid. On New Years Day we went to Danit's family house for a nice bbq-lunch and more discussions and laughter. On friday me, Adi, Moti and Maya drove 1 hour north to visit Yossi, Yael, Maya and Ella who were in a Zimmer for the holidays. The Zimmer had a pool and we spent a lot of the time in the pool playing different games and of course we also ate a lot of good food, it was a really nice day except for the fact burnt my back a little bit.
During the week me and Adi has found a new passion in life as well....Puzzels! So every night for the past week we worked on an old puzzle that we found in the basement and sunday night we finally finished it but realized that sometime before three pieces of the puzzle had been lost. So after finishing the puzzle on sunday I went to get a new on yesterday and found a really good one in Puzzle-Store in one of the malls here so when Adi comes home its Puzzletime!.
I also have other news for you swedes reading...I'm coming to Sweden on the 29th of sep and staying until the 7th of October so if you feel like hanging out or do something cool please contact me and we'll see what we can do. Now I gotta go plan a CISV-activity for some youth here in Haifa.
Until you read again,
Carl
Monday, 6 September 2010
Looking for work...
Hey all,
Another week has passed and I've been looking for jobs. So far I found a few and emailed them all but havent yet received any good information. I went to an interview last week and it went well but the pay was really low and the travel time was a little to much. While I'm looking for work I'm also learning more hebrew on my own, which is not as much as fun learning together with others but its ok.
This weekend me and Adi went to the CISV Israel leadership training. We meet a lot of CISV friends and some newcomers. The training was for the CISVers from both Haifa and Tel Aviv who are now old enough to create and hold weekly activities with children. So the training consisted of lots of different things ex. what a good leader is or how to talk in front of a big group etc. It seemed to me that the people there learned a lot and had loads of fun doing it.
Last week we also went to the wedding of Orit and Guy this time it was a more regular wedding. It was a night full of food, dancing and people. Everybody seemed to have a lot of fun specially Orit and Guy.
Yesterday I went to Herzelia for a conference called "Who is a friend of Israel?" That was organised by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. What was talked about was just the fact about who is a friend of Israel, what a "friend" is and what "Israel" they in that case were friends of or wanted to be friends with. There were three different panels with 5-6 ppl in each and theses people were famous and important Israeli politicians, historians, journalist etc, there were also politicians from the German Green Party there sense the Stiftung is german. For someone like me who is a Political Scientist it was really interesting both listening to the panels but also to the crowd that was there and asked questions. The crowd consisted of ca 100 people from all ages and political views and their questions and stories and thoughts really made me realize again how many different views there is about Israel among the Israeli's themselves. After a long day at the conference Adi picked me up at the train station and we went home to have a nice and calm evening. Today I haven't done to much some hebrew, some laundry, some cooking and just now I picked up Adi from the train. Tomorrow I'm going to try to find a stream so that I can watch Sweden vs. San Marino in the EC-qualifications.
Til you read again,
Carl
Tuesday, 31 August 2010
Visit, Visa, Voting...
Hey All,
I haven't written in a while so this text might get long as I have to describe the past two weeks and a lot of different things did happen. As I wrote in my last update a friend of mine was coming to visit and sure she did. I picked Ida up in the middle of the night from the Haifa train station after she had travelled for almost a day as it was the cheapest flight. When she was here we did many different things like visiting the beach, going to Jerusalem and hiking to the spring here in the Carmel Park in Haifa. We also talked a whole lot about what had happend in our lives over the past month and just regular things that we usually discuss. Ida stayed for a week and did a lot of tanning and sitting out in the warm weather that Sweden seemed to have been without this summer. She left a little reder, warmer and charged up for a cold fall in Sweden.
Last week Adi also had her birthday on the 26th of August. Some days before that Adi had invited some friends for a bbq and I was in charge of the grilling itself and after som assistance from Nir we managed to grill all the 6 kgs of meet that we had and everybody seemed delighted with the food so we were happy. During the evening we ate and talked and had a lot of fun. On the birthday it self me and Adi went to her pizzeria that makes gluten-free pizzas here in Haifa, we grabbed the pizza and took it to a lookout out point in the Carmel Park and had a nice lunch. Later in the evening I took Adi to nice restaurant here in Haifa called Bazarella translated into englis it becomes something like Meatarella basically a nice meat restaurant. We had a really nice meal and an awesome evening.
The day before we also had our 6 months anniversary and as a nice gift the Interior Ministry decided to give me a work-visa for a year YEAY! So now Im looking for a job on a bigger scale. I also printed some pictures of us and got a nice picture frame to put them in so now we have more nice pictures of us on the wall. On the 25th we also went to Adi's cousins "Henna"-prewedding party that is a tradition for Moroccan Jews. It was a party with good food, lots of loud music and interesting clothes and of course the Henna. The tradition is that you put the Henna on your hand and tie a bow around it in celebration of the couple and I still have a big brown blob in the middle of my right hand and its going to stay like that for a while.
On friday me and Adi drove to Tel Aviv to visit Raz and Nir but also to pick up Moti and Maya from the airport on the saturday as the trains were not running. In Tel Aviv as it was Sabbat not a lot of stores or restaurants were open and no buses were running so in the evening when me and Adi wanted a dinner we went on a little excursion from Raz's apartment to an open resturant, the walk there took around 1 hour but we got a really nice meal and good evening out of it and btw....we took the cab back. The next day we went to Nir's place watched a movie and hung out and then went Ben Gurion Airport to pick up Moti and Maya. Yesterday I went to Tel Aviv to vote in the upcoming Swedish elections. I voted at the embassy and all went well, I also gave them my CV hoping they have a job for me, fingers crossed. The night before a guy also called me about a job so I went from Tel Aviv to Herzliya for a job interview and all went well and later in the week they will call me back and we'll see what happens.
On another note the first EL-game vs Napoli went well only a 1-0 loss in Italy but in the return game in Sweden again Napoli won and the final aggregate of the two games were 3-0 and Elfsborg is out of the Euro-league and now the focus has to move to Allsvenskan and aim high for a another shoot for in a Euro League next year. Last week I also had my last lesson and test in the Ulpan at the University so now I'm back to learning hebrew on my own. The Ulpan thought me a whole lot and I'm going to build on it.
Til you read again,
Carl
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Ulpan and Hikes =)
Hey All,
Another weekend has passed here in Israel and its been an exceptionally hot one, when I say that i've been sweating buckets im not lying. The week in the Ulpan has been great and another midterm has been passed with a good result 88/100, so right now im pretty pleased with myself. This week the University is closed so almost all the building are locked up. This means that we have had to move our class to a different building and a different classroom. Later this week I'm supposed to hold a presentation about whatever I like and so far I dont know what...suggestions anyone?
Last weekend was full of fun stuff. On friday I went with the Ulpan to Sippori, Yodfat and Akko. Sippori was the only city in the Galilee that surrendered to the romans during the Jewish Uprising in 66-72 AD. This saved the city from complete destruction as was the case for the cities that did not surrender. The cities inhabitants and commanders was seen as traitors but they lived to keep the traditions and life of the early Jewish state. The buildings that survived are also very special as they are full of Roman mosaics that show different things. I'll upload the pictures later. After Sippori we went to Yodfat a city not to far away and to much unlike Sippori before the Uprising, however Yodfat made the deadly choice to fight the Romans and as a result the city and its inhabitants were leveled to the ground or killed. As the story goes there was only one survivor, the former commander of the Jewish "army" in the north, Josefus Flavius. Josefus surrendered to the Romans when he was the only one left alive. He was brought to Rome to be processed and most likely executed but he persuaded them some how and he survived and became a historian who would live to the the story of the Jewish Uprising and irs thanks to him and some other writers that we know what we know about the siege of Masda, Yodfat and Jeursalem. In Yodfat nothing is left but the cistern that they kept their drinking water in. After Yodfat we went to Akko Beach for some swimming and tanning however as I and Adi had made other plans for the weekend she picked me up and me, her Raz and Noam took the car more north.
Yodfat or what remains...
One of the "smaller" Mosaics found in Sippori
My favorit Mosaic (above)of Sippori can be found in the Roman Villa, it depicts the Roman God Bacchus and Herkules having a drinking game, but it also has the Mona Lisa of Middle East, created almost 1500 years before Da Vincis.
Mosaic in the Synagogue in Sippori
View from Yodfat
On friday afternoon we drove from Akko to the Kinneret lake to camp for the night, which was really nice. We made our own food and had nice calm evening. Our goal for the saturday was to hike the Nahal El Al. Its a stream that runs through a river valley in the Golan Heights. Along the stream there are a two major springs/waterfalls. They are called the Black Fall and the White Fall. They both get their names from the color of the rocks the water flows over and down. The Black Fall is made up of volcanic rock and the White Fall of Limestone. Both of them have smaller pools at the bottom that you can swim in, we swam in both to cool down form the extreme heat. Except for the heat the hike was really beautiful and fun, I took some pics that you can see further down. We got home last night completely exhausted and fell into a bed after a nice long shower.
The Black Fall
The Road ahead of us
One of the beautiful views...
The White Fall
Another nice view...
The ground of the Hippodrome
The main road of Caesarea
View of the Roman City from the outer port
A Muslim prayer tower one of many evidences of Caesarea being used by many different cultures.
The hugh moth and a Castle wall that the Crusaders built.
On another note one of my dear good friends from Sweden is coming for a visit this week YEAY! It will be fun to catch up and talk some swedish and see what sort or mischief we can get ourselves into. Also last night IF Elfsborg ran over Kalmar FF with the score of 4-1, its looking good for the EL-game vs Napoli on thursday.
Til you read again have fun,
Carl
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