Tag: Travel

JERUSALEM DIARY DAY 11: ACTUALLY WE’RE IN TEL AVIV IN THE “COOL” NEIGHBORHOOD (OF COURSE) OF NEVE TZEDEK

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This little cafe, NINA, is also home to a small hotel owned by a young woman named Aliza.  One of the pioneer establishments in the gentrifying neighborhood of Neve Tzedek, it’s full of the sorts of scenes you would expect in an area that was almost gone and is returning to a lively street and commercial life.

RoomHere’s a bad photo of the room – I’ll post an improved one tomorrow.  It’s a little apartment with a sleeping loft and a kitchen.  Adorable.

This is the oldest neighborhood in Tel Aviv, just blocks from the sea.  As you can see, there’s lots going on , even on a Thursday night – from book store readings to the odd practice of staging wedding photos posed against the industrial landscape here.
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Tav_bride

We’re going tomorrow to the drum circle on the beach and a crafts show with our friends.  It’s nice to be in a modern city after all that time in Jerusalem – as moving as it is it’s also confining in an odd way.   I have described the Jerusalem/Tel Aviv comparison as really Red State-Blue State and I think I’m right.  Culturally, politically, sartorially and philosophically they are like Salt Lake City versus New York City.  Both have their charms and represent parts of the Jewish whole but boy are they different.  Goodnight from the Bluest state in the Middle East.

WELCOME TO NABLOPOMO! HOW I SOLVED THE SABBATH PROBLEM

Sabbath_candles_2This is a very exciting undertaking – a blog post a day for thirty days!  A little scary, but exciting.  For me though, it offered an extra challenge, one that forced me to drop out last year.  I can’t work on the Sabbath.  Every Saturday I observe Orthodox rules about the kindling of light, whether it be a spark plug in a car, a doorbell or a reading lamp.  God told us to rest, and every Sabbath we pray the He be "please with our rest."  It’s a pretty big thing.  And it’s lovely; beginning with the lighting of Sabbath candles on Friday night and then a festive dinner.  I’ve come to love the peace of it even though before we began our observant life I thought it was nuts.  It was a great lesson in not prejudging.  Ever.

So of course, there was no way that I could post on Saturdays.  I can’t use the computer.  Fortunately, technology solved the problem.  I figured out that if it’s ok to use timers for the dining room lights (it is) then I could set a timer for my post.  I’m writing each Saturday post in advance and setting it to be posted on Saturday morning.  And I’ll be in Israel for almost half the month so this will also be a great diar.  I’m looking forward to this.

GETTING EXCITED FOR BLOGHER

Imgoingo7 Boy is this getting exciting!  I’ve been on real deadline rollercoaster and will continue to be but seeing BlogHer at the end of the tunnel makes the journey easier.  If you haven’t gone in the past, I’d give it a try – last year was a real blast.  Here are a couple of photos from then – just to inspire you (Oh and this is not a commercial; no one asked me to write this…)  I think I downloaded most of them from Flickr so they’re borrowed – but fun.

Cooper_jennifer_lauck_mary_tsao Here’s Cooper Monroe (Been There and The Motherhood), Jenny Lauck (Three Kid Circus) and Mary Tsao (Mom Writes)

Lunch_time Posting during lunch.

Come on – it’s really fun and Chicago is a beautiful city.  More here.

THE ADVENTURE THAT IS BERLIN

Ackselhaus_door_small_2 That’s the door to the apartment we stay in when we’re in Berlin (oh – we’re in Berlin.) It’s in a part of town that was far into East Berlin when the Wall divided the city and the magnificent old buildings were devastated by neglect. Slowly, building by building, that’s been changing in the years we’ve been coming here. It’s quite thrilling to see.

Pasternak_crowd_smallThis neighborhood, Prenzlauer Berg, is kind of like Soho was in the 70’s — pioneers, cool galleries and an amazing yarn store, more people on bicycles than in cars (though that’s changing) and an air of expectation, thought and excitement. It’s a joy to be a (pretend) part of it in our little weekly rental.
I want to tell you all about it – the way this city puts your brain into overdrive, the restaurant a block away where President Bill Clinton turned the town upside down by coming to dinner, the parent- created playground, the fancy apartment house that used to be a Gestapo HQ – but I’ve been up for 24+ hours so all that will have to wait. We’re here and it’s cool to be here and I’ll share as much of it as I can over these next few days. OH – and for all my Jewish friends who “will never go to Germany” – I respect your feelings but one of the most exciting things happening here is the re-creation of a young, vibrant Jewish community by Jews determined to go past the Holocaust and take their rightful place. More on that later, too.

IS THIS KOSHER?

WARNING:  WHINING (completely without merit, I might add):

Kosher_ou_1 We were in Orlando all weekend at an advocacy training.  It was my husband's journey  and I went along for the ride.  He had asked for kosher meals – it had worked fine on our last trip — but these were some of the worst food I have ever eaten.   To the point where I was actively angry – angry! that this had become part of my life.  They were in boxes, sealed with cellophane so the kashrut could be guaranteed.  The first night the hotel sent them up with a wonderful bellman named Nelson and a tiny microwave where he heated them for us.  The meal was called Buffalo Chicken Wings with Rice and Corn.  It was a mush of rice, corn and way way waaaaay overcooked chicken wings.  And tomato sauce.  Plus it was spicy which I hate.  Somehow this became very important to me – not sure why.

In the morning we were able to eat hard boiled eggs on plastic plates w/plastic silverware.  Not so bad.  Lunch brought spaghetti with weird meat-balls and tomato-flavored library paste.  I took some salad from the conference buffet – which included – but was unavailable to me — rye bread (not kosher), cold cuts (not kosher) and cheese (not kosher.)  We had Sushi for dinner which is ok and was good.

Lise_stern_1 Spice_and_spirit I often quote our friend MONK – "Here's the thing."  I have spent a lot of time working on learning the rules of kashrut and often spend Friday evenings reviewing the rules (the books here [How to Keep Kosher and the Spice and Spirit Cookbook] are the best I've found) but it's just hard both to figure out and to execute on the road.  I only buy food for our home with a hechscher (that U with a circle around it at the top of this post)  and I know now to cook. As I've said before, the home stuff is fine – comfortable and real.

I think that the real problem isn’t the food it’s the exclusionary nature of this portion of the observant life.  I’m going to have to learn how to manage it and keep writing about it until it feels better because right now it feels lonely in some odd way.  Then I go to an event or to services at our synagogue and realize why I’m doing this.  My husband calls it “the yoke of heaven” and reminds me that I’ve chosen it and will find a way to live within it.  I know that’s true and that whether I eat crummy spaghetti is really not the issue.  Reading the New York Times travel section and knowing I really can’t eat in most of the restaurants there is more the issue.  OR wander into a Guatemalan hole-in-the-wall on 16th St. or a Greek place downtown or a Vietnamese place in Paris or even a steak house in Chicago!

HOLD ON!! I know as I read this how spoiled I sound.  I’ve spent my life in amazing adventures in travel AND food and it’s not like I’ve never had these experiences.  I am just really struggling with surrender I think.  In some circles they call it “turning it over” to God.  Our rabbi says “There is a God and it’s not me.”  If I accept that then I have to accept the observant principles that inform the faith and the peace it offers.  Most of the time I can.   But boy it’s a bumpy journey.

   

MAD MAX[INE] – KOSHER ON THE ROAD

Oukosher
This is the first time I’ve tried to eat only kosher food on the road. We called the hotel where we were going to stay (they have been really nice so I’m not saying where) and the guy asked if we needed a special dining room too. (No, we aren’t germ-averse, just food-specific) We got the dinner we had ordered and it came in paper containers (soup) and plastic plates (bread, good rare rib roast slice and green beans) and Styrofoam (tea.) I asked about the caterer — it was the local Jewish Home for the Aged! Lunch is later today so can’t report on that.

I’m having trouble getting used to this.

I want my mobility. I want my connection to the rest of the world through food. I want to walk into a diner at the beach or a middle eastern place in LA and just sit down.

I want — that’s the issue, isn’t it? I have to learn when to slam the “I want” into the drawer and just go with the rules. I’m perfectly comfortable doing it at home – but I don’t have to give anything up to do that, really. It’s just a matter of careful logistics. On the road it’s different. I feel the pull of the “outside world” that keeping kosher seems to limit in some ways. I need to learn how to handle this – and I don’t want to write too much about it right now. I just wanted to document this experiment in kosher road warriorhood. And to mention that in a hotel where they had no idea of the scope or reason for our requests they went out of their way to make it pleasant. That’s a lovely thing. If they can bother – I have to learn how to bother too without complaining.

If I’m really honest I have to say that my biggest fear is imposing anything on my non-kosher kids. They were not raised in all this and there’s no reason to expect then to live as we do. But I’m afraid it will become a burden between us – — not because of them — they are caring and considerate and will help us to do what we need — but because I’ll be guilty and apologetic and make everything harder for all of us by overcompensating – both at their homes and at ours. I know I’ll figure it all out but some days I’m more aware than others of the “giving up stuff’ side that is part of what has brought us to all the peace and beauty of this new life.