Thursday, January 24, 2008

Inscapism

I went to the movies last night with my German friend. It was an Israeli movie called: "The Bubble". I don't wanna tell you exactly what it is about, but in short it's about love between a Jewish Israeli man and a Palestinian man. It's about impossible love. Politically and Socially. It was a good film, not the best I ever watched, but a good one that makes you think. Well... It makes ppl that are not Israeli's think. Me? I just got depressed.
Usually ppl who go to the movies want their good nice piece of escapism. They want to run away for 2 hours. Get away from normal life. This movie for me, as an Israeli, especially one that lives abroad, was a lot more inscapism than escapism. It totally drew me back to the problems there. Took me there by force, like there was a vacuum there that just sucked me back in. I tried to resist but it just didn't work, the force was much stronger than me. It pulled me in like a black hole, and really, there was nothing I could do. It started taking me back to the sad reality. It was worse than reading the news. I can't stop thinking about it. I went to sleep thinking about it. The first thing that crossed my mind when I opened my eyes this morning- was the ending of the movie. Again- I don't wanna spoil it for you- but I'll just say that I got so depressed. The whole day in school today I couldn't think about anything else. And it's not like there's not nice and happy things going on in the movie. There are! But the sad things... And these sad things- they're not even that realistic (to my opinion) they are a bit exaggerated, but still, they made their point. And it did it's job- it made me sad.
The last thing someone says in the movie is something like:

"Maybe one day ppl will see that fighting in wars is so stupid, and loving is so much better.

Nahhh.... No one will."







And on this happy note-
I'll just wish a happy birthday to my cute brother Daniel: he's 7 years old today!!!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Arts & Crafts

Hello you all!
Last Friday I got the results to my exam. As I expected, I passed, I even got a "2" which is like the American "B" (well, kind of). I'm happy with it, and now I started the second course (with the same teachers and except for 3 ppl- the same students). My Chilean friend passed as well- and now she's in my class, and I'm really happy for her, coz she used to be in my old class, and as you already know- it sucked. Not surprisingly, most of the ppl who didn't pass the exam were from that class. I really feel bad for them coz I know it's mainly the fault of their pathetic bad teachers... Oh well, being a real Israeli (who fights for her rights) did pay off!

I finally finished the baby blanket I made for Adi's baby
(who looks so cute in the pictures she sends me),
it took me a few months to knit it, and here are the results:

Baby blanket - over view


Baby blanket - closeup 1


Baby blanket - closeup2

Baby blanket - closeup 3

I'm going to send it to her tomorrow via post, and since she doesn't have any time to read my blog nowadays (having a baby might do that to you...) I feel free to put the pictures here before she even gets it.

P.S Liya! you see? I made it bigger, babies, as you mentioned, do grow fast!!!

Till next time!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

A time to relax

Yesterday I had an exam. It was coz we finished a level, and we have to take it and pass it in order to go to the next level. My teachers really prepared us well- we practiced a lot, and in the end the exam was much easier than what they prepared us for. The other groups, including my old group, didn't think it was so easy. So again I thank myself for changing the group. Today, while the teachers are checking our exams, we have a day off, and tomorrow we'll get the answers.

I made friends with a real nice girl, who joined my old group the day I left. She's from Chile, and she's cool and fun. She's here coz her boyfriend is from here, so naturally we have a lot to talk about (and complain about..).

Other than that nothing too exciting is going on in my life, Goni had her baby (girl!), Adi's baby is home now after being in the hospital for the first 3 months of his life. I wish them both all the health and sleep and happiness in the world! It's a bit weird that two of my best friends are mothers now... Especially coz it's two girls (are they already women? hmmm...) who were the ones I would guess last to become parents. The one was always late in doing everything everybody else does, plus she's a real researcher, who's doing her PhD now (but on a maternity break). The other... Her I met about 7 years ago, in those days the last thing she wanted was to have kids, and in general she hated those little creatures (even though where we met was in a job of teaching kids hahaha). But life has it's own way of biting you you know where, and even though I was always the one (and still am) that loves kids and almost everything that has to do with them, the one that works with kids, and sees her self doing that for the rest of her life, those friends are still first in line.
At least I know what the reason is... These girls were always the ones that will do things the way they're suppose to be done. I'm, how to say, not really like that... I'm not a crazy person, I'm not a 'real' rebel, not from the outside. I look totally conventional, and if you just see me in the street, you'll never guess exactly what kind of person I am. But if you look at my life you can see, that I'm not necessarily the person who does what everyone expects her to do. Well, that's just me.

I'm knitting a lot lately! I love it! I'm knitting a baby cover for Adi's son, and a scarf for my sister. She's coming in about 3 weeks with my mom!!! YEY!!! I'm so excited about it! Already booked a place for all of us in Berlin (where we'll be for the first 3 days) and a place for them to stay close to where we live in Dresden (for the last 3 days). Now all I have to do is make a list of places in both cities we want to see, and that's it. I miss them a lot, my mom and sis, and it's gonna be great!

Anyway, I really don't have anything exciting to tell,
wish you all a great weekend,

Friday, January 04, 2008

A dark fairy tale

The next pictures were taken in the little forest
on the hill close to where Rob's parents live.
We took a walk there on x-mas eve,
in the early afternoon.
Because of the frost on the trees
(it's not snow!)
everything looked as if it froze while growing,
as if time stopped,
and it gave the feeling of being in a dark fairy tale.
If you look really close-
you might see the white witch...
(you can click the pictures to make them larger)





The next picture was taken on a frozen lake,
we wanted to ice skate
but there were no more skates for rent in the shop.


In this one you can see me standing on my skies,
waiting for Rob to take my picture,
not noticing he already did...
Look at the nice view,
and what beautiful days we had.



And here is one picture of the x-mas tree,
with most of the presents around it.


Thursday, January 03, 2008

A post from the 29th of December

(Most of this post was written in a nice cabin up in the Austrian mountains, in a restaurant of a ski resort).

First I'll start with telling you how I got here. Just a bit more than a week ago Rob & I left Dresden and went to his parents. His dad actually came all the way to our place to pick us up, which was great! (Have I told you that already? I don't remember...). We spent a nice weekend at his parents, met some of his friends and spent time with his family. Then Monday night came really quickly! It was x-mas eve, my first real one. I helped to decorate the tree and asked Rob's mom when did this tradition start. She told me that the whole thing started with just a green twig they used to put in the house at this time of year, to represent growth and new beginnings. They used to hang apples on it to wish for always having food on the table. Only about 150 years ago they started to put a real big tree at home, instead of the twig, and continued to decorate it with apples which eventually changed and nowadays look like the x-mas nice decoration balls you all know.
After decorating the tree we had a nice afternoon with tea and cookies (including the ones I made, who got some compliments) and then Rob's mom prepared a game for us all- she asked us trivia questions about x-mas (I obviously didn't know most of the answers) and whoever said a wrong answer had to chose a note with a chore on it. Some of the chores were just something nice to say or to do- like what I got: to tell about a nice encounter that I had this year. I told them about my language exchange partner.
After that we had a nice dinner, with a Raclette, on it you can grill your own food- which makes it very social and fun. After food was the presents opening. Rob totally bombarded me with presents, he got me: a jumping bread toaster, a cool key chain and a really nice designed notebook (both I was checking out in the stores when we were there together), money to buy in Zara, a book by Mark Twain called "The awful German Language" (it's a great book, who knew Mark Twain learned German???) and to top it all: my own laminating machine!
I also got a hot water bottle with the swiss flag on it from Rob's sister, and really really nice earing, a booklet with all German bad words from his little brother, and we both got from his older brother- his clothes dryer - which is already in our apartment - coz we were suppose to have temporarily until he finds a new place - now we get to keep it! His parents gave me a few nice little things, amongst them a good thermos, a nice calender, and a voucher to buy in a really good clothes store. It was a really nice evening with his family.

On Wednesday we drove to Austria to Rob's grandma's. I haven't been there since I started writing this blog, so I'll just tell you that she lives in the south part of Austria, in a beautiful area, just like Austria is suppose to look like. His mom grew up there, between the white mountains and blue sky. we skied for 5 days of the week we were there, in the beginning I was obviously very rusty and terrified, after not skiing for more than 9 months, but gradually I got over it and at some points it was pure fun. At the day before last on snowboarder crashed in to me, and totally flattened me on the slope, I have a huge ugly black bruise on the back of my shin to prove it, but I didn't break anything and as you can see I'm still alive. The only thing it really did is make me paranoid of the ppl coming from on top of the mountain, at the next and last day of skiing. Mostly the sky was blue and the views were amazing, and in general the more I skied the more I liked it and got better... Most of the days I got a half day ticket, and after I was all tired of skiing, while the rest of the guys were still fit, I sat down in a nice restaurant like this one, had a hot chocolate or just a cup of tea and relaxed...

So you can see that I had a really nice vacation, shame that it's all gonna be over soon,
in two days I'm going back to Dresden (alone coz Rob has something to do in Munich on Monday), on Sunday I'm working and on Monday - back to the routine... Must admit that I'm not too keen on going back to school, but... It's gonna be alright, I'm sure.

Have to go now, we're meeting some friends in town for a drink, will put some pictures here in my next post.