I guess you’ve all realized by now that I’m on something of a break. I hadn’t planned it, but my mind has been feeling rather dry and empty lately, and I can’t seem to summon up the energy to blog the way I’d like to. Hopefully, things will return to normal shortly. In the meantime, you can find me over at Israelity today and Thursday, so please...
In the grand scheme of things, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a bit weird when it comes to remembering inane bits of trivia and assorted episodes from my past. I remember people much better than they remember me, and it can be rather alarming when I can spew the most minute, trivial details about past encounters when the person in question doesn’t even...
Greetings and salutations, my trusted readers. As many of you know, I’ve begun writing for the Diplomatic Post which, unfortunately, is not online at this stage. Since a few of you have been clamoring to see my columns, I received the approval of my editor to post them here. The column below appeared in the second issue of the magazine, which was distributed on August...
One day last week I had the distinct pleasure of having lunch with Benji at a small resto near my office. Over humus and salad, we discussed a variety of subjects – work, living in Israel, bloggers and blogging, writing, and so on. One of the main topics of conversation, however, was summer camp. Benji recently returned to Israel after spending his summer working at our old...
A constant source of interest among bloggers is visitor statistics. We like to know who are readers are, where they’re from, and how they found us. In my case, many of my visitors find me while performing a Google search for one term or another. Sometimes the search terms are unusual (I had a hit for “underwear parade” earlier today), and many border on lewd...
Ever gone on a date with someone while your leg was in a cast? I have. As I’ve mentioned before, I managed to break my leg only several weeks after arriving in Israel at age 18. During the weeks prior to my little mishap, a few friends and I met a group of young men at a (long-defunct) pub in Jerusalem. One of my friends immediately hooked up with one of the young men...
Sorry for the silence lately. Life has been hectic, and I haven’t really had the time or energy to concentrate on blogging. I’ve also realized that the focus has changed around here, and I’m not packing quite the punch that I used to. I’ve been feeling rather frustrated and dissatisfied, and generally too annoyed with the state of the world to actually...
Living in Israel for sixteen years means that I don’t often pay attention to those “only in Israel” moments anymore, and events that may strike a new immigrant as unusual are no longer something out of the ordinary. The times when I’d wake up and go through my days being conscious of the fact that I was in a “foreign” country are long gone...
We took a lot of family vacations while my brother and I were growing up. Sometimes, these getaways were relatively close to home (such as the one at Golden Acres Farm and Ranch, where my parents received special permission for me to join the hotel day camp’s boys group instead of the girls group because the boys did fun stuff like dodge ball while the girls group took...
There’s something about the holiday season in Israel that makes me realize that there’s no place I’d rather be at this time of the year. In some respects, it reminds me of the Christmas season in the US. The excitement and anticipation in the air are palpable, and talk inevitably turns to holiday plans. Strangers smile at one another and exchange holiday...