Back from Israel

so... Let's start with the list I made in Istanbul at the airport, let's see what I did and what not:

See my dad and his wife and my little brothers.
Did that but felt like it was the shortest visit in the world... Came back home wanting more, and didn't get to see them again. I miss them a lot!
See my grandma.
Did that- and got to eat so much of her nice food... Just forgot the cookies she gave me to take with, but at least I got to eat some of them there...
See my grandpa.
Saw him and his wife, was a nice visit, haven't been in their house for ages. I always go to my grandpas clothes store when he's working (yes yes he's more than 75 and still working) and I see his wife when they come to my dad's when I'm there. Their house didn't change much. His wife, which is a really lovely and funny lady, is really old now, and can't work at all anymore (she is a housewife but her food- was the best!!!). It's sad...
See my aunt and cousins (from both sides)
Only saw my aunt from my moms side... didn't get to see any cousins...
Spend time with my mom and sister.
Spent! was really nice with both of them!
Celebrate my moms birthday with her.
We hung out all day together, my sister came to Haifa too, but I had the stomach flu so I didn't really feel great that day... It past after 24 hours (which was really lucky coz having an aching stomach in Israel is like going to the toy store and not being aloud to play with the toys!!!)
Get a haircut.
Got one! really nice!
Go to the dentist.
Went. Got a filling in a cavity which I think was there more than a year ago but none of the dentists I went to ever saw it. It's the same one that the dentist in China said I should kill (root canal) - stupid dentist - it was a cavity for god's sake!!! Anyway now I have to go there again to put in the new filling (since the one I have now is temporary)...
Go to the doctor.
Went! got everything I needed.
See all my friends: including: Yifat, Adi (and her new baby), Goni (and her new baby), Tali (and her new husband to be).
Saw them all and it was great! Saw Yifat (but only for one evening and one afternoon), saw Adi and her baby twice (he's the cutest and most beautiful of them all!!! I totally fell in love), saw Goni and her baby a few times (she is definitely adorable and sweet and cute and and and), saw Tali twice and once with her boyfriend, she told me when they're getting married. And- I also saw Anat which I haven't seen in ages, and Nadav- twice- which was great, and also a new friend from one of the forums I participate in- always nice to find out who's behind a nickname.
Eat Humus.
Did that with my new friend, in the best place in Israel (to my opinion).
Go to the beach whatever weather it is.
Had a walk (well it's more of a walk with my mom than a jog) on the beach, and it was great, even though the weather was the worst (foggy - it looked as if hell came over, we could look at the sun right though it without blinking, it looked more like the moon).

I also spent time with my cute dog (took his pictures- but it's on the film camera so till it's ready to put here it'll be irrelevant already).

Now I'm back in Dresden, it's 2 degrees, it was 20 in Israel... But it's fine, I know that soon enough it'll get warmer here too. Today is Purim- our costume and fun and getting drunk holiday- I'm celebrating it tomorrow with the community (where I teach Hebrew) the kids are giving a play (which I wrote according to the holiday story) and it's gonna be fun.

This weekend is Easter, and Rob's friends from all over Europe are coming over for a yearly reunion, I'm really glad coz I really like them all... 2 of them are gonna stay over here on our floor- and on Friday we're inviting them all for dinner!!! It's gonna be a cool weekend.

I really need to start studying to my German exam, I haven't studied one bit in Israel (big surprise) and now I really need to do something about it... hmmm... Hard to get back on track...

That's the update for now, happy Purim and Happy Easter to all of you!

Family visit

Last week, as I told here before, my mom and sis were here for a visit. They arrived on Friday night and left a week later on Friday afternoon. How can I sum it up? It was great, it was tiring, it was fun and it was really full of sight seeing. We were in Berlin for the first 3 days, and we saw a whole lot of it, we met Rob's parents and sister there too, we had a really cool apartment in a hostel called Alcatraz that we all shared (Rob and I and my mom and sis), we had great weather there (blue sky all the time) and basically it was really nice.
Then we drove back to Dresden, and spent 3 days here, saw almost everything there is to see (didn't have great weather but was still nice). I would put pictures but I don't have all of them yet.
On the day that they arrived I did a Toefl test which was one of the most exhausting experiences of my life, I'll get the results in about 3 weeks and we'll see how it went...
Last Friday I drove my sister and mom to the airport (I drove alone to Berlin and back!!!), and after I dropped them off, I met some friends in Berlin and also stayed to watch one of them give his Radio show in Hebrew. It was cool to sit in the studio and see them talk...
Today I had a Hebrew lesson again (the last two weeks were winter break) and it was nice, got some more things to do for them, and hopefully it'll become something regular- and this way I can make some more money every month.
After work I went to meet Cecilia, my Mexican friend, she came back from there a week ago. It was fun seeing her after a long time (almost 3 months).
Now I'm in bed, feel a bit yucky, hope I'll feel better tomorrow, coz I have to go to school after missing more than a week. I feel bad about missing so much, but to be honest, I didn't feel bad about it even for a second for the past week so... why start feeling bad about it now? maybe coz I'm a bit worried that I feel so far away from it now. Hopefully I'll go right in to it again...
This coming weekend my friend Yifat is coming for a visit, almost spontaneously (she told me she might come a few weeks ago, but only decided to really do it today) and it's gonna be a lot of fun!
Tali- my sweet friend- is getting married, she waited all week to tell me that in person on skype and not via e-mail. I told her that I have a phone (!!!) and that she could have called. She said she didn't know... LOL typical Tali! Anyway - it's very exciting and I wish her and her boyfriend (or shall I call him her husband to be?) a big Mazal Tov!!!
Oh and by the way, my cute amazing cell phone from China died totally last week, and now I have a simple Nokia that is ok but is about 10 generations of cell phones back in time... Troubles of the rich...
Have a good week everyone!!!

It's rainning.... grrr...

Oof it's been raining for the last few days and it doesn't look like it's ever gonna stop... grrr... and BRRRRR... every time I go outside with pants that accidentally touch the ground I get home wet to my knees- coz there's puddles everywhere. It's like there's no sewage here- and the water keeps piling up in huge quantities- just for me to get wet... I understand now why Chinese ppl always wear pants that are narrow in the end- not touching the ground. It's really hard to find a Chinese person wearing bell bottoms or anything that is even remotely close to that. Now I know why!

***

My dad was here last weekend- it was so much fun! I really enjoyed his stay here... We went to the Tennis Masters Cup Final together- with Rob. It was between Roger Federer and James Blake. Federer won- and it looked like he didn't even try hard- he was just standing there most of the time letting nature do what it's supposed to do- WIN... Blake is a new comer to this contest (it's a tournament between the 8 best players in the world and 8 best couples in the world) and I think he gave a good performance regarding his short past in these kind of contests. Well anyway- it was really nice to spend time like this with my dad- especially coz I know how much he likes watching Tennis.

***

School... hmmm... I really like the classes... I think that a student like me should get more classes everyday- rather than have to work at home. When I get home- all I can think of is doing nothing special. At least once a week I do something after school with my Spanish friend Lia- and then when I get home I really don't feel like studying. Big problemo! Next week I have another exam- and this time the teacher said it's gonna be all in Chinese characters... OOF! Not ready for that at all... I hope I'll sit on my ass and study some more this week. The rain outside should do the job but it just does the opposite- makes me wanna stay under the blanket!

***

Bought the second season of "Veronica Mars"... I know I know- I'm not a teenage girl- but I just love this TV show... it's so unreal but so clever and never ever boring... so of course I saw the whole season in 3 days (22 chapters) - couldn't resist!!!

***

Rob's going home for x-mas. I've decided to not join him. He's going for about 10 days- and I know he's going on a family marathon. I love his family- They were all so nice to me, but most don't speak enough English to communicate with me for more than 5 minutes and I figured that it wouldn't be so much fun... Plus- I don't feel comfortable getting in to the family x-mas eve- being Jewish I've never been to one- and I don't think that coming from China for 10 days - having nowhere to go to after that evening - is the good time to start. I guess that when we'll live there and coming for the holidays will be just coming from a few hours away by train- it will feel different. I'll have more freedom then- not like in this case- where I know that I'll be dependant on Rob and what he's doing- like I was in every visit in Germany in the last 18 months. To make things short- I'm gonna stay in Shanghai ALONE!!! for about 10 days... But I made him come back here on the 31st- so I wont be alone on new years eve (not that I care about the evening it self- just here- I don't feel like being alone when everyone is coupling up and going out to parties... I guess that in Israel I really wouldn't have minded...)

***

Can read here again in China- cross your fingers it'll last... Have been reading Dorian's blog so fast- afraid that any moment the connection will fall LOL I'm getting Paranoid...

Getting colder...

Until last week the weather was pretty much alright. There were a lot of sunny days and the temperature was nice at noon. But since this last weekend the temperatures dropped even more, and today I hardly woke up to a very grey rainy day... My dad is arriving tomorrow with a suitcase full with my winter clothes- and my feet can not wait to be in my boots... I hope that the fact the weather is only gonna get worse is not gonna disencourage me from going to uni- coz I really enjoy the classes there and the atmosphere.

***

Last weekend we hosted Rob's best friend's girlfriend. She's Chinese and she lives in Chengdu the capital of Sechuan province. She's working now for the same company Rob does (different division) meeting customers all over the country. Here it's very normal to take the train for long coz of the huge size of this country. She takes the train for more than 40 hours (!) to get to Shanghai from Chengdu. These are numbers we usually can't even imagine... She told me a story about a girl who used to be a friend of hers in uni. This girl came to study in Chengdu from a place far away in the north of china, roughly close to Siberia. Her family are all farmers and they obviously do not have a lot of money. She was granted with the tuition by a rich relative of her family's. The university- placed in Chengdu Is located more than 52 hours away, on 2 different trains from her home. Due to her family's situation she could not afford to go home more than once a year- between the semesters in the holiday. When she did go home she used to buy a "hard seat" ticket - meaning she would sit on a hard seat for 52 hours each way to go home. She got this kind of ticket coz it was the cheapest obviously. (The ranking of tickets in China goes like this: Hard seat, Hard sleep = sleeping on a bed in the big train cart, soft sleep = sleeping on a bed in a room with another 3 ppl). Apparently one time this girl had missed her train from Beijing home and the next one was in 24 hours. She had nowhere to go, and no money to stay anywhere- so she just slept in the train station with 2 big bags... As well- she used to send the little money that was left from the allowance she got- to her family... Today this girl has a good job in the municipality of Chengdu - and earns enough money to visit her family a bit more often. This story is probably one of thousands but it still sounded so special to me.
Just wanted to share here some views on normal daily life in China... When I hear about these kind of things- I feel really lucky with what I have.

Back to normal life at last

Rob's family left on Saturday morning. His dad left here on Tuesday already. I spent almost everyday with them- wondering the streets of Shanghai- was really nice walking in places I've seen so many times- but this time listening to his mom tell us all about the buildings and history(reading from her book- I made her leave it here so Rob and I can actually be tourists too). When you live in a place- you usually don't really look at it like a tourist does- you usually don't see things that for someone new are really interesting. Of course I've seen Shanghai in these eyes the first time I've arrived here almost 2 years ago- but I haven't spent so much time touring it then- and after a while I got so used to the scenery that it never looked so interesting and strange to me anymore. This time I could really see it and learn. Rob and I have seen more of and walked more in the streets and spots of Shanghai than we ever did and it actually felt really really nice. On Friday we both spent the day with them- he took a day off- and I just skipped school (bad girl!)- and we went to ZhuJiaJiao- a little Chinese town almost an hour to the west (an hour with traffic). It's very touristic but it was really nice to see how a real old Chinese town looked like. The fact that they actually charge you for the entrance to the town might seem weird at first- but then you see how rather clean it is (compared to Chinese standards) so you forget about it and just enjoy. Rob's mom and sis spent most of their time shopping - buying all kinds of Chinese souvenirs - nice stuff- but the stopping at every store was exhausting. In the end I think they left with a nice collection of Chinese stuff. I have these kind of things since I'm a little girl, and obviously I have a lot of these things from my last stay here- so it's not so easy to excite me with them...
I promise I'll put some pictures soon- as soon as I collect them all from everybody's cameras...
Starting a normal week now... Wish me luck

Crazy weekend

Friday was a busy day as it is- and in the evening we went to the airport to pick Rob's dad. Then we went to his hotel with him- and then home. Saturday we woke up early and spent the whole day with him- walking distances I've never walked before in Shanghai. I think it was a total of 8km that we walked in town that day. I was beat in the end of the day- wishing for a day of rest after it- that will never come- coz on Sunday morning we woke up early again- and went to the airport to pick Rob's mom and younger sis and bro. Then again- crazy day- walking everywhere- doing everything... In the evening- when we said goodbye- till tomorrow- I realized that tomorrow starts a new school week... Getting no rest on the weekend was really exhausting...
I had an exam today- and coz this time we still had the Pinyin (the way to write Chinese in English letters) as well as the Chinese characters- I think I did really well- but then in the middle of the exam- the teacher said that the next one will have no Pinyin- and we'll have to do it all in characters... At that point I knew that the next exam wont be so great...
Tonight we're meeting Rob's family for dinner- they're traveling in Suzhou today- a small town an hour away- that ppl say is beautiful. Funny thing is- I've never been there. Well- maybe it's more sad than funny...
So I'm about to have a busy week- now I'm resting a bit- reading online after 2 days I haven't, trying to relax...