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 day and afternoon (pic 1 and 2)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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