Happy holidays!

Tonight is Passover eve- one of the most important holidays for us. Usually ppl gather together, family and sometimes also friends and have a big dinner. The thing about this holiday is that you're not allowed to eat bread and anything else that has regular flour in it. If you're interested in more details here is the Wiki for Passover.
So... you're asking what I'm doing tonight? Well- that's a good question- coz I'm working!
Since I don't really have who to celebrate with here- and I really believe in celebrating with ppl you love, not just with anyone to say that you're celebrating, then I didn't change my shift. And so this is just another day...

This weekend Rob's Erasmus friends from all over Europe are coming for the Easter holiday. I hope we'll have lots of fun- I guess we'll basically wonder with them around town a bit, maybe go to the mountains for a day and enjoy some Bavarian food. Oh and of course- drink a lot- coz that's especially what they like doing (especially the Irish and Swedish...) Cross your fingers for me that this weekend will pass with no alcohol poisoning... LOL

I wish you all very happy holidays!!!

Beautiful Dresden

Last weekend Rob's older brother and his girlfriend were here. It was really fun!!! They came here on Thursday evening, we had dinner at home together and then we went to the old city to wonder around a bit. The next day we spent the whole day around town- and we got to see a lot of what this beautiful city has to offer. The next morning they had an event far away so they had to get up early and drive.

Here are pictures from that weekend-

one photo is worth a 1000 words...

(click pictures to see them in a normal size)

This is the Zwinger
Was build by Augustus the Strong
and today houses several art collections.
This is its Crown Gate.

The Frauenkirche
(the Women's Church)
Was rebuild in the last 10 years,
after it was almost totally ruined
in the bombings of February 1945.
It's pretty impressive (and huge!)



Blaues Wunder
(the Blue Wonder)
Said to be the first bridge in the world
to be build without any constructions in the water itself.
We crossed it from the side you see in the picture,
and took a cable car up on the hills.


Here it is again with some more view.

and again.

(these pictures were taken
from a really nice restaurant
on top of the hill
that has the nicest view in Dresden)


Here is the view to the other side-
The Elbe river and it's amazing valley.



On this side of Dresden
there is some of the nicest and
most expensive houses in town.
Even Putin himself used to own a house there
while living in Dresden
when it was still DDR (GDR).


Last picture- from Neustadt
the cool side of town.
We went to have dinner there,
and this is just a nice picture of the sunset.

Hope you enjoyed!!!
I'll sure miss this city...

A great weekend and a productive day

Last weekend we had really good weather (was amazing- on Saturday and on Sunday there was lots of sun- and the next day it was all gone). On Saturday we went for a bicycle ride, and after 2.5 hours came back home- 1 normal person and 1 dead person (guess who was the dead one). I'll spare you the details- but lets put it this way- it was hard to sit down for a day after that... LOL... I got so tired from the ride... we probably rode about 10 km - and for me that's a lot!!! we went from home to the Grosser Garten- which is the big park, and then a bit on to find the school I'm going to this summer. It wasn't as close as we though it'll be- and on the way there I already had to stop and take a real break... Stupid me- I didn't take any water with me, and we had no money to buy water as well... When we finally got home I crashed in the entrance, and wasn't able to move... But I slept great that night!
The next day we went for a jog in the Grosser Garten, and then for ice-cream and a walk to the Elbe- which is the river that flows right through Dresden. Walking there from home was about 20-25 min- which on a good weather day is really nice. With the bicycle it's prob really fast- just I still have to get used to the roads here, and to finding my way- so I wont hesitate taking the bike to places.
Yesterday, Monday, we got most of the things done: I got a bank account, I registered to the language course in October, registered at the city of Dresden (in Germany you have to register where you live, as soon as you moved there), ordered a SIM card online, and now all I have to do is get a health insurance, and go apply for the resident permit.
Tonight we're going to the Arctic Monkeys concert! (the tickets that Rob bought me for my birthday) will tell you all about it afterwords!

Long time no write

Haven't written in a while... Tell you the truth it's been kinda eventful here- even though I've been doing practically nothing... Met most of my friends here, saw most of the family, went over most of my stuff and threw away a lot of things. Gave lots of clothes and shoes to charity. While going over my closet I realized that there's so many things in it that I'll never wear again. That when you live in the same place all the time you just keep them for that once in a season you'll wear them. When you go away for so long- you realize that you've managed with a lot less than that. You tend to keep only the things you really like and need. So that's why I threw out so much of my stuff. I still have 3 drawers to go over, and some boxes in the storage room.

Two of my best friends (the ones that are married) are pregnant. I'm not sure I'm suppose to tell anyone about it- but hey- if they're not reading this (and they better!!!) then they'll never know... When the first one told me about it- I was so happy for her. I mean- it's so weird - but I am really happy for her. Today the second one told me. And of course- I am so so so happy for her. And with that happiness I think I got a bit sad. It took me a while to realize what was making me feel this sadness. And in the car it hit me: I'm not going to be here for them while the pregnancy. I might not even be here when their babies are born. Well to be honest I will probably not be here then coz I'm gonna be studying German in Dresden at the time. And births- as you all know are usually not very planned... I don't even know if I'll be able to be here close to when the babies are gonna be born. And then I realized that I will not be around much when they grow up. I know that these are "just" friends- but they are not "just" friends to me. I feel like I'm gonna be an aunt or something, not just a friend of the kid's parents. So this is really weird for me...

We're having a girls night tonight- celebrating Goni's birthday a month and a bit late. She waited for me to be here, and for the others to have some time to be alone with us on a private celebration. I invited them over here to my house- coz my mom's not here for a week, and my sis agreed happily to go spend the weekend with her boyfriend.

I still feel like I have to shake this weird feeling off of me.

Back in Israel

Wow... I have so much to tell... And I had no time until now... So... I'll start with the last weekend- at Rob's parents' house. We got there on Friday afternoon, after picking up his cousin Vivica who came from Berlin. We were the first to arrive from all the ppl, and so we met all of them when they came. Well- his grandma was already there. Anyway, Friday night I met 9 cousins that I never did and 3 that I already knew. They were all so nice!!! They all spoke good English, so even though they were talking German a lot (and I actually understood a bit of what they were talking about sometimes) and had they're inside jokes (they're a really close family) I always had someone to talk to, and I could always approach them in English and expect them to understand me. OK, so the next day was the day of the big relay race. Rob and his big bro got a detailed plan for everyone- who's supposed to be where and when. I went with his dad to take a picture of the second change- between Georg and Ulrich- 2 brothers. We got there with Rob's Grandma, who was wearing her "Team Captain" T-shirt, and with Vivica. We waited for a while until the team number was announced (to let the next runner know he should get ready to run) and then finally Georg arrived and Ulrich continued with the race. Georg looked a bit worried and told us that he never saw Rob's brother- who was the first runner!!! They just told him that 154 (their number) has collapsed and he can start running his track! We didn't even know what happened to him until Rob's dad went to the hospital to see him... Apparently he ran a bit too fast in the beginning (so he said) and after a while didn't feel so good. A 100 meters (!!!) before the end of his track, he was running up hill and then he doesn't remember what happened, except for the Ambulance that took him to the hospital. Another runner had told him later that he caught him falling. Anyway this whole thing changed some plans- but the team continued running. I left the grandma's car, and joined Rob's car (he dropped off 3 of his cousins and himself), managed to upset him one time too (a big miscommunication) and "run away" from him, took some pictures of the runners and the changes between them (some are still on the camera's film), and generally have lots of fun! It was an exciting day, and everybody was really nice. I even got my own T-shirt with the same "85" in the front, but with my name in capital letters in the back... Was really cool. At the end we were all sitting in the beer tent, eating pretzels and cheese and other typical German food, and waited to hear what place the team ended up in. There were more than 300 teams, and "Elfriedes Enkel" ended up in the 159th place- which is not really bad. A good place in the middle. They were very famous for being one family, there was a reporter that wrote about them for the local newspaper- and made the grandma feel very special and a celebrity, and Rob's brother was famous for being the only one that was evacuated to a hospital that day...

The next day was my last day in Germany, we all had a big breakfast together (I helped Rob's mom bake Pita bread and make Tehina and Humus) and then slowly slowly all the cousins scattered away. I spent a few more hours with Rob (I miss you...) and then his big brother took me to the airport on his way home. We got there a bit too early (3 and a half hours before my flight) so I had a lot of time to kill, but it passed and I realized that I'm gonna see my sister soon... After a year and 8 months I haven't seen her at all... Slept about half of the flight, and then landed... Didn't recognize my sis (lost a lot of weight and got a new haircut) she had to wave so I know it's her... She looks great! I missed her so much... I used to dream about meeting her- every week since I went away...

Got home saw my mom, saw my dog (cute and old!), and met my best friends (except for Yifat- she's still not here- studying hard for her exams- I'll see her in 10 days), and tomorrow I guess I'll go see my grandparents and my dad and brothers.

That's it. Oh yeah- I already ate Humus!!! today... It was great!

Not much more to say,

Oh- Today is my sister's birthday!!!

Happy Birth Day Nitzan!!! Love ya!!!

Home sweet (new) Home

That's it! We're done bringing everything to our apartment, it took us a week until everything was in place- but now it is. Finally I have a home- a place I live in, and there's no more need to open a messy suitcase in order to look for a shirt. My things are in a closet!!! Our place looks so nice now, and so pleasant to be in... Next Wednesday the internet ppl are coming to connect us, sadly it's 2 days before we leave to Rob's parents's for my last weekend here... My flight to Israel is getting closer and closer...
We went to the foreigner office where Rob's parents live, to ask what kind of visa can I apply for, unfortunately there's no such thing as a girlfriend/partner visa, so the only chance will be to get a students visa. There's a few ways to do that, and as soon as we know more I'll write it here. Now we have to search for German language schools around here, and go there and ask questions, and go to the foreigner office here as well to see if the regulations are any different. I hope it'll be alright... I'm not allowed to work here as long as I learn the language (coz they say I'm suppose to study and not work) and that's a bit of a bummer... We'll see how we get along next year...
So, this weekend we decided to finally enjoy our home, for the first time (we've been at Rob's parents' house every weekend since we came back from China) and then I'll only have another week till I go back to Israel...
Have a great weekend everyone!

The sun is shining!

Except for my Chinese visa problems - which I'm planning on trying to solve tomorrow, these are beautiful days. The sun is shining for the last week now, with changing temperatures, but mostly around 15°c. Now for example its 19°c.
We took advantage of this nice weather on Saturday- and walked all over town for a few hours. We finally found a nice summer jacket for Rob and then we went to a very special coffee place called "the reading room". After that we walked all the way from the french concession to people's square, looking for a sports store to buy goggles for me, for our skiing trip in 10 days. The only kind we found were really good but too big for me and very expensive... So we're hoping we'll be able to buy it up north...
My visa issues kinda make me stressed coz they said that after a students visa I can't get more than one month as a tourist, so I needed to ask my dad for his help- to ask the ppl he's working with here to help me get a business visa. Tomorrow I'm meeting a friend of theirs and we're gonna go to the Police Bureau together- with some documents. Cross your fingers for me- I hope I get the visa until my flight back...

I feel a bit empty now with no school- even though I keep busy with the visa issue, skiing trip etc. I hope to find something to do in March- like teaching someone English, preferably privately, or signing up for a short term Chinese course (only if it's not too expensive). If all of this wont happen I'll make myself a routine of studying Chinese at home and planing our Tibet trip for April.

my weekend

This weekend was a really good one... On Friday evening we went for dinner with Rob's bosses from Germany - we met them in the center of town - and walked to a really good sea food restaurant that one of them knew from the last time he was here. With us was the company's translator- a young Chinese woman. It's the second time I'm having dinner with her - for Rob it was more than the second time. Like all the other times she took control over the menu - reading it alone and deciding for us what we'll eat, And just like the first time I had dinner with her - it was terrible! She never ever shares the menu with us- meaning she never translates it to us- just reads it to her self. On top of that - she never orders enough food for everyone and we always stay hungry. I left that dinner thinking it could have been so much better if only I hadn't stayed hungry in an expensive good restaurant... Rob's bosses are really nice ppl - and the food situation kinda shadowed the whole evening for me...
On Saturday we woke up late and then I made some chocolate balls for a friends b-day party. We went to an Indian restaurant for dinner (was really good) and then to the party. It was a really good party- and I met some ppl that I haven't met since I came back to China. Some it was really nice and surprising to see and some was surprising and not nice... LOL... But in general we had a really good time there...
Sunday was the laziest day of all - we didn't get out of bed before 14:00... Needless to say - it took me forever to fall asleep again at night...

My computer is still dead- waiting for the ppl from the lab to call with some kind of news - hopefully good news.

It's cold and rainy- and it's gets harder and harder to get out of bed early in the morning... I can't wait until winter is over- I really do not like it... summer person - what can I do...

I'll go to class now (skipped the first one- was moving too slowly in the morning...)

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...