a post! yay!

Shavoa tov

Hello hello everyone out there in the land of blog. It’s been an interesting week; missiles landing in the north, seeing friends from the north and the continuing saga of my job. Ah, such excitement in such little time!

The North

Well, unless you live in a cave without any interaction from the outside world (which if you did, you wouldn’t be reading this entry) you would know about the current “situation” in the north. Our good friends Hezbollah in the north have been firing rockets at us. Over 1500 rockets have fallen in the past two weeks. People have been murdered and displaced. Some people have been spending more time in bomb shelters than in their jobs and homes. Israel has gone into Lebanon to take care of our northerly neighbors. Friends have been called up to fight; others are waiting for their phone calls (and surprisingly; many WANT to be called up.) I’ve been posting comments from my friend Shira that lives in Haifa. She’s stayed very positive and been making jokes about all of this- you have too. What I’ve learned from living here over the past 3 years is that we have to laugh about those that hate us. If we didn’t, every day we would be depressed and most likely would not have survived as a country since 1948. We make jokes – albeit off beat tasteless jokes about our situation. When talking with Shira we discussed a new game in the north – “Ketusha Dodge ball.” Just like the game we played in phys ed class, if you get hit, you are out (however permanently) my father didn’t laugh when I told him about this game – but we have to joke. I always joke that the buses that I take are pretty safe as the amount of people on the bus wouldn’t be worth the “price of nails.” Ok, so it’s sick, but we laugh, we joke. It’s the world of living here. We continue about our days with all the threats around us and just try to enjoy a “normal life.” One of the blogs that I read is written by a Palestinian woman – very different from my own views, however, interesting to read what is going on in Azza and the Palestinian world as a whole. It was interesting to read that the Lebanese are upset that they have only 2 hours to pack up their homes and leave when they know that their apt complex is next to be destroyed. It’s funny; Shira gets a siren that gives her a minute to run to safety. Don’t hear here complaining. It’s also interesting to watch CNN and other news agencies that have been covering the latest turmoil here in the mid-east. They constantly show images of the “poor displaced Lebanese people” I was wondering what happened to their footage of the poor Israeli people that have been displaced and murdered. Wait, I forgot, we’re the oppressors – I keep forgetting. Oh well. Enough about that.

I’ve been getting a lot of emails from people- I am fine. Things are better than CNN is making it. We’ll get through this – we always do.


My job.

ARGGHHHHHHHHHH. That’s all I have to say.

Shabbat

Shabbat was nice. Was with friends, so that was nice. Relaxing Shabbat. Got some good sleeping done too- now I am awake, so it’s a bit of a problem. Oh well. I’m sure I will fall asleep soon.

TV

I’ve started watching LAX. It’s pretty good actually (and it’s in English!)

All right, that’s it.

I’m going to see if my Internet actually works (it’s been slightly temperamental as of now…)

Shavoa tov

Nikki

Rachel: dinner was a quesidea. YAY 9 days!

More from a friend in Haifa.

Hi there-

I wanted to share yet another e-mail from my friend Shira that lives in Haifa. When I read this the first time; I found myself nodding in agreement with many of the things that she said.

Shira sends everyone an email almost everyday talking about sirens and bomb shelters,
I wont be posting her emails every day, I just really wanted to share this one with you.





-----
Hi Everybody!

Things have thank G-d been quiet this morning, so I will
try to write a longer email responding to some of your questions from
your personal emails to me, but first some exciting news. Most of you
know that g-D willing we are moving to Yokneam Illit at the end of Sept,
so Maayan had applied to try and get a job in his field there at a
center for kids at risk. He got called for an interview next Thursday.
Let's hope it is quiet, so he can go and get this job because it would be
so great for him.

On that note, as you can see we are building a life here
for ourselves. Despite what you see now we have a future here for
ourselves and we can't just abandon everything we have worked so hard for. I
know you are all concerned and you have no clue how much I appreciate
it, but we are not coming back to Canada. This is our home and it is not
just about our beliefs.. It is also about us and our lives. This is
where we belong, this is where we feel comfortable and ironically enough
we feel safe. We follow all the governments instructions and we will get
through this and return to our regular normal lives just as Israelis
have been doing since 1948 and Jews have been& doing since time
immemorial after wars, expulsions, pogroms and the Holocaust.

I watch the news and it makes me sad and angry. I can't
help thinking about the civilians on both sides who are paying the
price and knowing that this situation will only get worse before it gets
better. As much as I wish there could be peace tomorrow there won't be.
The G8's decision to place an international force will not work
especailly since both sides reject it. We and they are not ready yet, as always
in the& Middle East we need to have more suffering until people are
willing to give in and not have peace, but a cessation of hostilities
until the next time. (Sorry there was just& a siren and we
went& down to the shelter.) This conflict has a lot of fronts and is
incredibly complicated with a deep seeded root on each of the different
fronts. But all historical conflicts take decades if not hundreds of years to
work themselves out and this one is no
different. Are the British and Americans still at war, are the French
and English at war, i could give hundreds of examples, but ultimately
when both sides are tired and ready the situation will be resolved and
all sides will live in peace. However to be pessimistic, but
realistic& for a moment most likely not in my lifetime. There are too many open
wounds for people on both sides. &

How do these sirens work you ask? As soon as a missile
is luanched over the border it is detected and a siren sounds. In Haifa
we are lucky because we have more time than most the others, so as we
run down to the bomb shelter if they are actually falling in Haifa we
can hear them. If we don't hear them that means they fell in Akko,
Nahariya or somehwere more north than Haifa. Once the& siren turns off we
are told to wait 15 mins and then we can come out.& The more
northern cities are sleeping in their shelters because the siren does not
give them enough time, but now problems are starting in the shelters. Alot
of them are old with hundreds of people crammed in them (We are also
lucky that ours is in a building and not public because that makes a huge
difference) The public ones are suffering from overcrowding, lack of
food, jammed toilets and clashes of nervous
personalities. The dangerous thing is when becasue of that situation
people choose not to go down. Some people& have chosen an alternative
method which is to stay in an internal room which is protected and that
is what saved the people in the building in Haifa yesterday. The
missile hit their outside wall and they were slightly injured but safe in the
inner room. Believe me, we take the sirens very seriously, we jump at
every boom,& hawl of wind, and car alarm and we are making every
effort to keep oursleves safe. We left our apartment for that very reason.
It is a top floor& with no inner rooms or bomb shelter, so beleive
me we are taking this very seriously. & &

What do we do here? Well my work has been cancelled
until Sunday and then they will re-evaluate the situation. In the meantime
we sit here togther glued to the news, the computer and keep ourselves
updated and alert. We read and mostly we try to laugh. laughter is
therapeutic and if you don't joke around you go crazy with the seriousness
and chaos around you. You have all been thanking me for these emails,
but the truth is I should be thanking you. These emails are therapeutic
for me. They enable me to express how I'm feeling in& a
constructive and meaningful way. The truth is I haven't really cried yet. Right
now I feel that if I cry I will fall apart. There will be time for that
after. Right now I need to be strong, we all need to be strong, but it
is important to get these emotions and thoughts out, so thank you all
for being my therapists. I appreciate it. Maayan
has also been really great. We keep each other strong and optimistic
and it is good to be staying with Iris's family because at this time we
all need each other.

That is one of the other reasons I cannot come back to
Canada. I'm sorry if my being here causes you to suffer. Please know
that I am not trying to be selfish or then again maybe it is because I
know that if I went back to Canada now Maayan and I would suffer. We would
suffer exactly what you guys are suffering. Not knowing about his
family and our friends and our home and our country. From here we can at
least help and support each other and the ones we love and I try to be in
touch with all of you so that you will not suffer. As much as I
appreciate your requests to come back to Canada because I know that deep down
they are coming from care please stop asking because we won't and it
hurts me to know that I'm causing my family and friends to suffer and
believe me not a day goes by when I don't think about it and feel
horrible, which is why I try to be in touch as much as
I can to ease your pain. Please know its not intentional, but we have
both our families to think of now and it would be just as selfish for us
to abandon Maayan's family and our friends here. Maayan's dad works for
the army and continues to go to work. His mom is helping the city of
Kiryat Yam open their shelters and provide entertainment to keep the
kids' spirits up. His brother and sister went south and his other sister is
in the army guarding her base. His grandparents in Kiryat Haim are
staying put. His grnadparents from Nahariya moved in with his aunt and his
other two uncles and their families in the northern villages of Hosen
and kfar Veradim are hanging in there. His other aunt and her family
moved in with their mother in the Golan Heights, which is now no longer
safe as& well. &

ACTUALLY ISRAELIS THEY ARE LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO GO IN
THE SOUTH. IT IS DIFFICULT BECAUSE THEY ARE SIX PEOPLE 2 ADULTS AND 4
KIDS AGES 3-14. THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE SEPARATED, SO IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE
WHO HAS ROOM PLEASE CONTACT ME. 052-4847787 or Irit directly at
052-470-6311. THANK YOU!

So you see my decision is selfish whatever I do, please
do not make it worse. For those of you who have guilt tripped my
parents please stop their pain is difficult enough. If you don't have
supportive words for them then don't say anything at all. Asking them why they
are bad parents and not making me come home is not supportive. They are
being FANTASTIC parents because they are supporting us and our
decisions and that is what good parents need to do in this difficult time. They
are also actively educating people about the situation both verbally
and in the newspapers and I'm so proud of them. Thank you also to those
of you who have written op-eds and gone to the demonstrations in NY and
MTL. It warms my heart to hear that we are not alone. Eric thanks for
your Sms. We love you all!
Just a quick update before I sign off in our last run
down to the bomb shelter two missiles did hit Haifa one near the
industrial area and one in an abandoned field right near where we married last
year. Thank G-d we did it last year and not this year.

Again words cannot express how grateful I am to all of
you for your prayers and support and if you have more questions I will
try to answer them as I can. Be well and pray for peace for all of us
here in the Middle East. Shira& &

The Current Situation?? What Situation?

Twin Monkeys?!



Hello hello to everyone out there in Blog land. It’s interesting; CNN told me that I am living in a country that is at war and honestly, I don’t notice it. Ok, fine; there are a few things here and there that have changed. Though thinking about the extra security that is around (more police – not soldiers) could be attributed to the increase in tourists that are here right now.

Listen. Hezbollah is bad. Very very bad. They are not militants; they are terrorists and truthfully they are getting what they deserve. They were used to us just sitting back while they funneled money, kidnapped soliders and other various things. Though, I think that we (Israel) showed them that they were wrong; we’ve had enough and we’re going to show them that we will not be pushed around by them anymore.

Ive been talking to different friends about the current situation and I’d like to share parts of the conversations.

This was from a mass email from my friend who lives in Haifa (who I also could not get into contact with until much later that day as the phones were down): (This email was from Monday)

“Hi Everybody!
This morning at 6:00am the siren sounded and we all ran
down to the shelter, we didn't hear any booms and then my friends
father who works for the city in security received a call that it was a
false alarm, so we came back up. We had a very quiet morning after that and
thought maybe the worst is over, so Maayan and I decided to run back
quickly to our house and get some stuff that we had forgotten in our
haste yesterday.
We got together our stuff quickly called my parents fast
(again sorry I woke you guys at 6am) and were about to run back to our
host's house when the siren sounded again. We ran downstairs as fast as
we could, but our building is old and does not have a high qulaity bomb
shelter. Its essentially a storage room under ground. There are no
lights and it is filthy, so we hoped it would be over fast. After two booms
it was quiet, so we waited 15 mins (Just so you all know this email was
just interuprted by sirens and a 20 minute stinit in the bomb shelter)
and came back to Iris's parents house.
As we ate lunch and tried to regain some sense of
normalcy the siren sounded again. After several booms there was quiet, so we
came back in and then after about20 minutes the siren that interupted
this email.
The truth is the sirens are important and saving lots of
lives. Part of the reason we lost 8 people yesterday was because in the
first attack the alarm didn't work, so I'm glad we have it although now
if we hear a ploice siren, wind anything we jump, but better safe than
sorry. We can also hear the planes heading to and from Lebanon
overhead. We are tired, but ultimately doing okay. We will see how the week
plays out and maybe if it is quiet enough we will head to Jerusalem or
Beersheva. Its a difficult decision to leave your home under duress, but
as long as we have the bomb shelter here things will be okay and we will
be okay.
Thank you all for the wonderful thoughts and support you
have shown to me and Maayan. It helps to keep us mentally sane. Be well
and Pray for peace! Shira
.”

I spoke to another friend of mine that also lives in Haifa. She said that her and her husband left Haifa on Thursday night after the first rocket – she sounded stunned and in shock.

Another friend of mine has a brother that lives in the north. He said that the camps have been shut down and people are bringing their WHOLE families to work. Offices have begun to provide “in-office” camp for all the kids that are there.

You can also go to my friend Michelle’s Blog to read about her Shabbat experience (the link is on the Right)

Yet here in Jerusalem things are relatively calm. We’re going about our day to day stuff. We have not received any news from home front command about preparing ourselves; nor has the Canadian consulate (which I am registered with for some stupid reason) contacted me and told me to pack my bags. Infact; the only thing that is on peoples minds is “Who is going to be called up?” SMS’s are flying back and forth about it

(this part I continued today; Tuesday)

The only thing that IS happening is my friends have started to get called up. I just SMSed (text messaged) with my friend Nahum Binder who just got his milium (reserve duty) for tomorrow. Supposedly the men that are getting called up now are going to be in the Shomron and not Azza or Lebanon. It’s interesting; most people that I have spoken with WANT to called called up; they want to fight, they want to protect and they want to serve the country. It’s a very interesting mentality that those of us that have not served do not understand (the army didn’t want me.. something about a bad back…)

Other than that… things are going well. The country is very unified and it’s interesting to see that people are getting a long – different groups of people that may have never spoken to one another are talking – all over the country people are talking. It’s a big family here.

I would just like to assure people that I am not concerned or worried for my safety. I feel very safe here; this is why we have some of the best security in the world. Just hope for the soliders that are on the front lines; those that are going to get called up and those that have been kidnapped. (I also add that the media interest in the 3 Israeli soldiers that were kidnapped by terrorists has been shadowed by the current “situation”… they are still being held hostage.)

BTW – Stay away from CNN. They seriously have things wrong and are in the business of selling ads- not news.


That’s about it.

Keep smiling and send me a message to let me know what’s going on!

On a funny note; I got an email from my friend Rina Parker- she told me that she had a dream that I gave birth to twin monkeys – for the record, I would like to publicly state that I have not given birth to twin monkeys and I never will.

Have a great day!

Nikki

Headline News

There have been quite a few thigns going on that I really should take a second to write.

The current situation.

Two weeks ago, Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by terrorists (No freedom fighters, but TERRORISTS.) Since his kidnapping, Israel has gone back in to Azza in attempt to find Gilad and stop Quassam's from being fired into Israel (For a excellent documentary on the Quassam's that have been falling into Israel, more specifically Sderot, go to www.chutzpaproductions.com . My friend Igal is the man behind it) Since Gilad's kidnapping, things have changed her day to day (also the kidnapping and murder of Eliyahu Ashiri z"l ) People are more hesitant to hitch a ride around the country, concerned about soldiers and add a special set of prayers for the safe release of all kidnapped soldiers (which sadly, two more were kidnapped yesterday) What is most interesting, is that people don’t refer to Gilad a the kidnapped soldier – He is Gilad. It's almost as if we all know him, all grown up with him. It's an interesting cultural thing to see that the whole country is concerned about his release (The names of the 2 other soldiers have not been released yet.) Last night, all that was on tv was the latest from Lebanon. We've got from the north, we've got from the side, and it's lovely to see that people who claim that they want peace are attacking us with missiles and kidnappings. . . These Terror groups want THOUSANDS of terrorists to be released for the release of our soldiers…right. Release people that are behind terror attacks and hate. No thanks.

The government s talking about beginning to call up the reserves- hopefully my friends that get their phone calls will only be put on "be ready" and not get called up.

Am I concerned about my safety? In truth, no. I still go about my day to day life. I just hope that it will all be over soon.

Do we sit by our tvs, radios and computers and hope for good news? Yes.

Oh wait, I forgot we're the oppressor. Right right.

America goes after people that attack them, that's ok; we do, we're in big trouble (This is why I should stop watching CNN clips at home.


Ok. I just needed to rant for a bit. I did

O' Jelly Fish

Hello hello.

O' Canada!

Ian and I being the Canadians that we are had a Canada b-b-q at his place. Lots of people showed up – even a few Canadians. The Americans toasted us with a (painful) signing of O Canada. I even brought out the last of the Pearl's Salami that I had in my freezer (Yes, I import salami…) It was a really nice night. And yes, there were fire works. We're not sure from who or where they came from, but just like Victoria day

4th of July.

HA. My cousin had a traditional BBQ with lots and lots of meat. Soooo good. Tossed around the football. Made fun of Americans, it was a good time. Also, I counted, there were 11 Greenspan's. Crazy. We're taking over (G-d help you all…)


The beach
]
I went to the beach- doo dah doo dah. Yes, that’s right. I don’t hate my friends anymore. I went. Last night Moshe, Gogie and I went to the beach. There were jelly fish everywhere. All over the beach. They were these big blobs of, well, Jelly. As you stood in the water you could see them. That's when we stopped walking the water. I have to admit, when they are in the water and swimming they look magnificent, however, they sting – so no thanks. We hung out at the beach for a few hours, watced the stars come out – it was a really nice night. We stayed in Modiin that night where I naturally fell asleep on the couch while watching BSG. Anyways, I went to beach. I was happy. I hope to go again soon (and when there are not so many jelly fish..ick…)


The apt.

Things are going well. Gogie moved in and it's going well. Yay!


MY Job.

HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's all I have to say about it.


Thursday night club

I’ll just say it’s a good time to catch up with friends from all over and enjoy the end of the week. Ive learned that going to bed when the birds start chirping is an experience… It’s been good times.


Shabbat

Thank goodness. So looking forward to a quiet Shabbat. Made something for dinner that I have no idea how its going to turn out – infact, I don’t even know what to call it. I found the recipe online – uh oh.


Shabbat is about to start – Gotta finish getting ready.

Enjoy the sun

Shabbat shalom

Nikki