In Jerusalem there are lots of apartments, such as mine, where people hang their clothes out the window, or maybe on the roof. Which reminds me of apple trees. Why? Read on.
About the only fruit I eat much of is apples. But most apples you buy at the store aren't very good. The apples we grew in Indiana were a hundred times more flavorful. One tree produced sweet, red-streaked apples. The other one produced very round, very sweet, light-green apples. The green apples, if you didn't pick them up, would have made a pile at least a foot deep all around the tree, if they all fell at once. I had to go out every day and pick up or throw away as many apples as I could, before they rotted, or they would attract wasps and hornets. We probably used less than a tenth of them.
My green apple tree was also a handy place to tie one end of the clothesline. The other end was attached to the garage. Hanging out clothes was always a pleasant thing to do, although in southern Indiana it was often too humid to get them as dry as I liked, so I would still put them in the dryer for a few minutes. One day I decided that the clothesline needed to be raised a little, for the first time in several years. As soon as I loosened the garage end of the clothesline, alas! the apple tree came crashing down. It had considerable insect damage right in the middle of the trunk that I had never noticed. I hoped it would sprout up again from the roots, and it did, but the sprout got cut down with the lawn mower. So that was the end of the best-tasting apples on earth. The other tree had the second-best-tasting apples on earth, but it didn't bear as well, and there was more problem with blight.
I wasn't interested in spraying it. In some orchards they spray several times a year and the trees get dependent on it. If you suddenly stop spraying, you will get no apples at all. But each year the apple tree will recover its independence from spray and bear again. Without spray you don't have such pretty apples, but for home use that doesn't matter.
June 18, 2010
June 16, 2010
Rude People?
I made a comment on this blog once about rude people. I have long felt that I should clarify/modify that. It isn't that there are a lot of rude people. It's just that there are a few, and you notice them. And sometimes it isn't that they're ruder, they're just more expressive. Sometimes they're also more warm and friendly, and more expressive of it. You see a lot of people hugging each other on the street, or with their arms on each other's shoulders, and it's really good. You see a young person pushing an old person in a wheelchair, not just to get from here to there, but to spend time with each other.
On the other hand, there seems to be a little lacking in the way of public relations. Like, in the grocery store the stock boys go on about their stocking, as if they don't notice you, but you can tell they do. They'll get out of your way if you make it apparent that you want to go through, but otherwise they just keep on working. In the U.S. they usually are quick to make room for you, or apologize, or even ask, can I get you anything? The clerks here don't always smile and say "have a nice day," which is perhaps all right, since it's apt to get rather routine anyway. On the other hand, it's a good habit, and keeps us from acting like machines.
There was a particularly grouchy clerk in Indiana that was kept on for a while, probably because she was fast and accurate. One day she was fuming mad and muttering under her breath about a bad customer, but I managed to say something pleasant to her, and she calmed down and cheered up immediately. I doubt that she was really a disagreeable person--but she had bouts of prickliness. Not surprisingly though, she didn't keep the job for long.
I remember being in a hospital somewhere once, I think it was to take my father in for some x-rays. I noticed that a lot of people there seemed to like their jobs and also the fact that it involved people, but I met one lady who made you feel that people were her main interest, and the job just happened to be what she did.
I once heard a lady in the south who was from the northeast who commented, "When I go back home for a visit, I'm amazed at how rude we are."
Maybe it's a matter of education. I've always wondered if the clerks at Lowe's are taught how to do it, and the clerks at Home Depot aren't. And some can learn it quickly on the job, while others don't get it if they haven't been taught it all their lives.
I remember being in a fourth grade class and being taught to always let the other person go first. The boys would argue, "then no one will go at all." But actually one concedes to go, so he's the good guy for giving in, and the other one is the good guy for showing respect.
In Texas one time I was at a license branch and a young man greeted an older man coming in with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. The older man turned out to be his father. Obviously, these were no Americans. I felt like the younger man was proud for everyone to know, "This is my father."
The other night I met a woman down the street who had two little terriers, one that barked at me ferociously and reminded me of a little dog that tried to bite me as soon as I turned my back. But I made friends with the dog, and pretty soon it sat down beside me like I was an old friend. Then I decided to test the dog. I walked away a few steps and then came back again, and sure enough it barked ferociously again, until it sniffed me and decided again that I was ok. I couldn't think of anything much to say to the woman, who spoke Hebrew, until she asked me if I spoke Spanish. Then we got to talking, in Spanish with a few Hebrew words thrown in. I found it quite encouraging to hear myself using a few Hebrew words now and then without thinking about it. It didn't matter if I mixed them up. In fact, I do best if I go ahead and speak, disregarding how sloppy and inaccurate it may be. I have even heard myself roll my r's on occasion. It just happens. Sometimes I stumble over my words and have a terrible accent, but the important thing is to keep going. (Advice to me: Lose your pride...)
I started Hebrew Level B today. It's going to be great fun. There are a few of the same students as before and several different ones. We have one of the same teachers, and one different one. (And today we learned the words for same and different.) I am already very optimistic about this class. It is funny how quickly apparent it is when you know you're going to like someone. The students are all very nice, although some take a little longer to get to know. I can tell that's it's going to be a really good class.
It's warm today, with a nice breeze. The forecast for tomorrow is high 89°F and low 68°F.
On the other hand, there seems to be a little lacking in the way of public relations. Like, in the grocery store the stock boys go on about their stocking, as if they don't notice you, but you can tell they do. They'll get out of your way if you make it apparent that you want to go through, but otherwise they just keep on working. In the U.S. they usually are quick to make room for you, or apologize, or even ask, can I get you anything? The clerks here don't always smile and say "have a nice day," which is perhaps all right, since it's apt to get rather routine anyway. On the other hand, it's a good habit, and keeps us from acting like machines.
There was a particularly grouchy clerk in Indiana that was kept on for a while, probably because she was fast and accurate. One day she was fuming mad and muttering under her breath about a bad customer, but I managed to say something pleasant to her, and she calmed down and cheered up immediately. I doubt that she was really a disagreeable person--but she had bouts of prickliness. Not surprisingly though, she didn't keep the job for long.
I remember being in a hospital somewhere once, I think it was to take my father in for some x-rays. I noticed that a lot of people there seemed to like their jobs and also the fact that it involved people, but I met one lady who made you feel that people were her main interest, and the job just happened to be what she did.
I once heard a lady in the south who was from the northeast who commented, "When I go back home for a visit, I'm amazed at how rude we are."
Maybe it's a matter of education. I've always wondered if the clerks at Lowe's are taught how to do it, and the clerks at Home Depot aren't. And some can learn it quickly on the job, while others don't get it if they haven't been taught it all their lives.
I remember being in a fourth grade class and being taught to always let the other person go first. The boys would argue, "then no one will go at all." But actually one concedes to go, so he's the good guy for giving in, and the other one is the good guy for showing respect.
In Texas one time I was at a license branch and a young man greeted an older man coming in with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. The older man turned out to be his father. Obviously, these were no Americans. I felt like the younger man was proud for everyone to know, "This is my father."
The other night I met a woman down the street who had two little terriers, one that barked at me ferociously and reminded me of a little dog that tried to bite me as soon as I turned my back. But I made friends with the dog, and pretty soon it sat down beside me like I was an old friend. Then I decided to test the dog. I walked away a few steps and then came back again, and sure enough it barked ferociously again, until it sniffed me and decided again that I was ok. I couldn't think of anything much to say to the woman, who spoke Hebrew, until she asked me if I spoke Spanish. Then we got to talking, in Spanish with a few Hebrew words thrown in. I found it quite encouraging to hear myself using a few Hebrew words now and then without thinking about it. It didn't matter if I mixed them up. In fact, I do best if I go ahead and speak, disregarding how sloppy and inaccurate it may be. I have even heard myself roll my r's on occasion. It just happens. Sometimes I stumble over my words and have a terrible accent, but the important thing is to keep going. (Advice to me: Lose your pride...)
I started Hebrew Level B today. It's going to be great fun. There are a few of the same students as before and several different ones. We have one of the same teachers, and one different one. (And today we learned the words for same and different.) I am already very optimistic about this class. It is funny how quickly apparent it is when you know you're going to like someone. The students are all very nice, although some take a little longer to get to know. I can tell that's it's going to be a really good class.
It's warm today, with a nice breeze. The forecast for tomorrow is high 89°F and low 68°F.
June 14, 2010
east, west, home is best
Home again, home again, jiggety ... seems like I said that before. So I have two homes.
Before I left Texas the first time I tried to think of what I would miss. I couldn't think of much. Now I have a different perspective. I miss (most obviously) friends and family and everything connected with them. My huge luxurious house--it got a lot bigger while I was gone. My huge luxurious bathtub. Soft water for washing dishes. Nice friendly wood floors. My huge refrigerator with a freezer that actually freezes what's in it. My dog. 80° humid nights. 90° humid days. Coreopsis beside the road. Flat dried frogs on the pavement. Cattle, especially newborn calves. Being able to hop into my own car at any time and do a few errands all by myself. Clean grocery stores. Wide roads. Grass!!! Space!!! Crickets and other bug noises. Houses. I have not yet seen a house in Jerusalem, only apartment buildings.
I don't miss: Mosquitoes, chiggers, and fire ants. Well, I sort of miss fire ants. They're rather interesting--until they bite you.
But now I'm in Jerusalem. What is it that I like about this pile of rocks, anyway? Maybe just that it's different. But I liked my home in Texas because it's familiar. And this is more familiar now. So maybe it's the variety of people here. And the warm days and cool nights. Maybe it's the simpler life. Simpler so that I can be more focused. But that is also limited and restricted and confining and sometimes boring. Maybe it's because it's the City of the Great King? But the King is not here. "But ye are come to...the heavenly Jerusalem." "Jerusalem which is above is free, the mother of us all." Maybe it's the history connected with it, and everything it symbolizes. "The Lord has chosen Zion, and desired it for his habitation." "For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel..."
Is it still "the holy city?" I think of the Psalmist saying "Walk about Zion,and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks..." and "...if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." I think that he was thinking not only of the physical appearance and location, but of all God's promises regarding it.
From Psalm 89:
3 "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,..."
29 "His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail."
From Ezekiel
19 "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
From Romans
"I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid."
"I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid:"
Before I left Texas the first time I tried to think of what I would miss. I couldn't think of much. Now I have a different perspective. I miss (most obviously) friends and family and everything connected with them. My huge luxurious house--it got a lot bigger while I was gone. My huge luxurious bathtub. Soft water for washing dishes. Nice friendly wood floors. My huge refrigerator with a freezer that actually freezes what's in it. My dog. 80° humid nights. 90° humid days. Coreopsis beside the road. Flat dried frogs on the pavement. Cattle, especially newborn calves. Being able to hop into my own car at any time and do a few errands all by myself. Clean grocery stores. Wide roads. Grass!!! Space!!! Crickets and other bug noises. Houses. I have not yet seen a house in Jerusalem, only apartment buildings.
I don't miss: Mosquitoes, chiggers, and fire ants. Well, I sort of miss fire ants. They're rather interesting--until they bite you.
But now I'm in Jerusalem. What is it that I like about this pile of rocks, anyway? Maybe just that it's different. But I liked my home in Texas because it's familiar. And this is more familiar now. So maybe it's the variety of people here. And the warm days and cool nights. Maybe it's the simpler life. Simpler so that I can be more focused. But that is also limited and restricted and confining and sometimes boring. Maybe it's because it's the City of the Great King? But the King is not here. "But ye are come to...the heavenly Jerusalem." "Jerusalem which is above is free, the mother of us all." Maybe it's the history connected with it, and everything it symbolizes. "The Lord has chosen Zion, and desired it for his habitation." "For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel..."
Is it still "the holy city?" I think of the Psalmist saying "Walk about Zion,and go round about her: tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks..." and "...if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." I think that he was thinking not only of the physical appearance and location, but of all God's promises regarding it.
From Psalm 89:
3 "I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,..."
29 "His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail."
From Ezekiel
19 "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:
20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
From Romans
"I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid."
"I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid:"
June 1, 2010
TEXAS
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog. Except it's not quite home, since home is Jerusalem. I guess I have two homes. Or zero, depending on how you look at it.
I got a little too hot today. Which felt really good, which means it wasn't really too hot at all. It's been six months since I've been so hot. I've really missed it.
I have over 300 hundred pictures on my camera, which means about 60 good ones, if I ever get around to uploading them.
I got a little too hot today. Which felt really good, which means it wasn't really too hot at all. It's been six months since I've been so hot. I've really missed it.
I have over 300 hundred pictures on my camera, which means about 60 good ones, if I ever get around to uploading them.
May 21, 2010
Waste Not, Want Not
Yesterday I made some apple bread. This is the second time I have made apple bread while here, and it works fine cooked in a foil pan in my toaster oven.
The first time, I used olive oil, since it was the only oil I had, and I was too lazy to melt butter, so it tasted a bit olive-y or something, and I had no cinnamon to cover it up.
This time I used canola oil, which was much better. I also added the chopped rind (both the white and the yellow, which I simmered for 10 minutes in a little water and sugar) of one lemon (the innards of which had been used for lemon-water). It turned out to be a good apple-lemon cake/bread.
My recipe needs some improvement, like some vanilla or almond extract or cinnamon, but I'm not sure which of those goes with both apple And lemon.
But anyway it was satisfying knowing that I used the whole lemon and didn't throw any of it away. Except the seeds. Hmmm. I'll have to see if there's any use for the seeds. In the east they use them to kill worms. Or I could plant them, and have a nice little house plant.
The first time, I used olive oil, since it was the only oil I had, and I was too lazy to melt butter, so it tasted a bit olive-y or something, and I had no cinnamon to cover it up.
This time I used canola oil, which was much better. I also added the chopped rind (both the white and the yellow, which I simmered for 10 minutes in a little water and sugar) of one lemon (the innards of which had been used for lemon-water). It turned out to be a good apple-lemon cake/bread.
My recipe needs some improvement, like some vanilla or almond extract or cinnamon, but I'm not sure which of those goes with both apple And lemon.
But anyway it was satisfying knowing that I used the whole lemon and didn't throw any of it away. Except the seeds. Hmmm. I'll have to see if there's any use for the seeds. In the east they use them to kill worms. Or I could plant them, and have a nice little house plant.
May 13, 2010
Meshuga? (Crazy)
Hum-de-dum-de-dum
Nice weather today. Warm and breezy. Shall I do homework or just be lazy? Well, the usual answer is, first I'll study, then I'll be lazy. Or first I'll study, then I'll clean house. If there's any time left. Or first I'll study, then I'll make some apple bread. Which I haven't done. Or first I'll study, then I'll do mending or play the violin or do something interesting or fun. Which means I don't do much of anything that's interesting or fun. Except study, which sometimes is interesting, and is fun when I realize I actually learned something. At some point I'll say, Maspeek!!! Enough!!! But I've got too far to go to say that now.
Today is an exception, since I haven't posted in a while. First I'll post, then I'll fix supper, then I'll study. If I can stay awake long enough.
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."--Douglas Adams, whoever that is. (Google him..)
The Irish in me gets a good chuckle out of this one:
"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."
--Winston Churchill
The English in me just takes another sip of tea.
There are lots of sights to see here if we ever get around to them, but for now I am quite happy with the ones we have seen and I put this picture on my desktop.
I'm looking forward to coming home. It'll be fun to see everyone. And fun to drive my own car and I'll have to buy some shoes and run around and do this and that and find out what I'm missing and then tear myself away and that'll be hard but oh well at least life isn't boring. Well, boring if you study all day, but not boring when you think about being here today and there tomorrow and nothing goes according to plan, well not my plan anyway, so there's no such thing as settling down and getting comfortable which may not be a good idea anyway, and when you write posts you don't have to worry about run-ons and dangling modifiers and you can just run-on and dangle anywhere you want. All that being easier when the weather is good and it's warm and sunny and your feet don't hurt for the moment and there's no deadlines you have to meet except the ones you make for yourself which you can miss as often as you feel like. And if you don't feel like it you can drive yourself crazy but what's the point, except when you have OCD that IS the point. It might be fun to work a jigsaw puzzle with Elijah. Well, I'd better go. Yellala, bye! (That's what they say here.)
Nice weather today. Warm and breezy. Shall I do homework or just be lazy? Well, the usual answer is, first I'll study, then I'll be lazy. Or first I'll study, then I'll clean house. If there's any time left. Or first I'll study, then I'll make some apple bread. Which I haven't done. Or first I'll study, then I'll do mending or play the violin or do something interesting or fun. Which means I don't do much of anything that's interesting or fun. Except study, which sometimes is interesting, and is fun when I realize I actually learned something. At some point I'll say, Maspeek!!! Enough!!! But I've got too far to go to say that now.
Today is an exception, since I haven't posted in a while. First I'll post, then I'll fix supper, then I'll study. If I can stay awake long enough.
"A common mistake people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."--Douglas Adams, whoever that is. (Google him..)
The Irish in me gets a good chuckle out of this one:
"We have always found the Irish a bit odd. They refuse to be English."
--Winston Churchill
The English in me just takes another sip of tea.
There are lots of sights to see here if we ever get around to them, but for now I am quite happy with the ones we have seen and I put this picture on my desktop.
I'm looking forward to coming home. It'll be fun to see everyone. And fun to drive my own car and I'll have to buy some shoes and run around and do this and that and find out what I'm missing and then tear myself away and that'll be hard but oh well at least life isn't boring. Well, boring if you study all day, but not boring when you think about being here today and there tomorrow and nothing goes according to plan, well not my plan anyway, so there's no such thing as settling down and getting comfortable which may not be a good idea anyway, and when you write posts you don't have to worry about run-ons and dangling modifiers and you can just run-on and dangle anywhere you want. All that being easier when the weather is good and it's warm and sunny and your feet don't hurt for the moment and there's no deadlines you have to meet except the ones you make for yourself which you can miss as often as you feel like. And if you don't feel like it you can drive yourself crazy but what's the point, except when you have OCD that IS the point. It might be fun to work a jigsaw puzzle with Elijah. Well, I'd better go. Yellala, bye! (That's what they say here.)
May 3, 2010
May
I never was a writer. I just keep this blog up as a sort of contact with y'all back home, and anyone else who is interested. I've haven't done anything special lately, like playing violin with Sam. I don't even practice. Life is just same-o, same-o. If it weren't for going to Ulpan, it would be pretty boring. But I l-o-v-e going to Ulpan.
There are about 22 students, when they all show up, and we're all in the same boat, meaning we're trying to learn as much as we can as fast as we can. Which probably stimulates the teacher to talk more, and faster, and throw in extra words that we can't possibly memorize fast enough. If we'd all play dumb, she'd have to slow down. Or maybe not, since we have to finish the book one way or another. Today the teacher passed out a bunch of different pictures and we were supposed to discuss (in Hebrew, of course) with each other what we thought the people in the pictures were saying or thinking. Such as: a silhouette of two people arguing angrily, or another of two people with their backs to each other like they were refusing to speak to each other. Or one of three people talking together while a fourth is off to the side with her arms folded frowning at them. Or one of a man getting off a plane with several bags and trying to manage several small children. Or a woman looking upward with her hands on her hat. Or a woman with a mischievous look about to pour water on the face of a man who is snoring. Or a baby with a surprised look on his face. Or a woman underneath a desk with computers and wires all around. She looked like she could have been thinking, "This is a really big problem," or "What a hopeless mess!" or, "Do I dare plug this into this?" Or, "I think I need someone to help."
Somewhere along the line I picked up the Russian word for blanket and the French word for beach. This has the tendency to become addicting.
I think stone walls look nice with flowers in front of them. Or flowers look nice with a stone wall behind them.
I am not a city person at heart, but I must say that I can't imagine a better city than Jerusalem to live in.
There are about 22 students, when they all show up, and we're all in the same boat, meaning we're trying to learn as much as we can as fast as we can. Which probably stimulates the teacher to talk more, and faster, and throw in extra words that we can't possibly memorize fast enough. If we'd all play dumb, she'd have to slow down. Or maybe not, since we have to finish the book one way or another. Today the teacher passed out a bunch of different pictures and we were supposed to discuss (in Hebrew, of course) with each other what we thought the people in the pictures were saying or thinking. Such as: a silhouette of two people arguing angrily, or another of two people with their backs to each other like they were refusing to speak to each other. Or one of three people talking together while a fourth is off to the side with her arms folded frowning at them. Or one of a man getting off a plane with several bags and trying to manage several small children. Or a woman looking upward with her hands on her hat. Or a woman with a mischievous look about to pour water on the face of a man who is snoring. Or a baby with a surprised look on his face. Or a woman underneath a desk with computers and wires all around. She looked like she could have been thinking, "This is a really big problem," or "What a hopeless mess!" or, "Do I dare plug this into this?" Or, "I think I need someone to help."
Somewhere along the line I picked up the Russian word for blanket and the French word for beach. This has the tendency to become addicting.
I think stone walls look nice with flowers in front of them. Or flowers look nice with a stone wall behind them.
I am not a city person at heart, but I must say that I can't imagine a better city than Jerusalem to live in.
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