Hebrew Lesson # 3

It's a beautiful tree.

Hebrew Lesson # 2

Miss Par has the first number in the line.



(Read: Number in English is Mispar in Hebrew.)

From now on, I will not explain it in parentices. The word in red is the English, and the word(2) in blue are the Hebrew translation.

In no particular order

Okay, it's going to be a disjointed post, maybe even a long one. But if I don't just write everything, my memory cells will explode from overload.

Ever since I started writing this blog I find myself going through life and thinking to myself, "oh, I have to write this on my blog".."oooh, this is really funny, I have to mention it on my blog".."wow, this is great. I can't wait to share this with everyone."

Then I get home, and feeling so wiped out that I cannot for the life of me recall what I wanted to share with you all.

So here are snippets from what I sort of remember, that may have either been funny or very angering.

I was ten minutes late to the pharmacy to get my flu shot. The ladies were counting the money and their lists as I came over and said, "darn, I'm late, aren't I?!" The one lady picked up her head, and said, "Yes, I'm afraid so." I then asked, "when is the next time you're holding this?" The helpful lady started saying, "Nov. 3rd we'll be back here." So I asked, "what time?" Then this other lady snapped and said, "I just left the information at the pharmacy counter, why don't you go ask them?" Would it really have hurt her schedule to think for five seconds about the answer to my question and give me the answer rather than being so rude? I was very upset because I was in pain and limping, and she just made me walk 20 additional steps that she could have prevented with just answering "12 to 6."

Conversation with my husband as we were searching for a new granite top for our kitchen:
Mybrid: "I think we should find a granite that has some orange on it, so it disguises the Fanta drops when I pour into a cup."
Ybrid: "Why don't you just learn how to pour without spilling?"
Mybrid: "Are you kidding me?! I'm not a proffesional drinker like you."
Ybrid: "No, you just have a drinking problem!"


One night before heading to bed, I couldn't find my cellphone after finishing to fold the laundry:
Mybrid to husband: "I can't seem to find my cellphone! Can you help me please?"
Ybrid: "Give me the wireless and I'll call it."
Mybrid: "But I turned my cellphone on vibrate last time I held it."
Ybrid: "Then we'll just have to be very quiet to hear it."
Mybrid: "Ok, go ahead."
[5 minutes later, and running around our room to the sound of SOMETHING vibrating, we finally found it in my sock drawer].
I got in bed all happy. Started reading a book. When the home phone rang. My husband ran to my sock drawer, opened it, and lifted a pair of socks to his ear, "HELLO? HELLO? Can you hear me now?"


After the third day of construction in our kitchen, I got back home to find an invoice for change orders:


Communication since then has evolved between us to pieces of drywall:

Hebrew Lesson # 1

Ok, I'm getting really stressed about not writing much on this blog, so I'm going to start something more regular. Hebrew lessons.

Here's your first one. In red is the word in English, in blue is the translation to Hebrew.

This is a nice house, I think I'll buy it.

(read: House in English is Bayit in Hebrew)

I will still be writing in my blog, but when I'm stressed for time, it'll be a Hebrew lesson.

Kitchen Make-up

I know you've all been wondering where I've disappeared to and why you haven't even seen me checking your blogs or posting comments, but here's the excuse in photos.

We used to have a kitchen.

A place to cook meals, sit at the table, eat, rest, and then when done, I'd go check email and blog.

It was a very nice kitchen. Cabinets were two years old. But we had a problem with the light fixture. It was funky, didn't belong in this modern house and didn't emit much light. Here's what it looked like:


So my husband and I have been sitting in this house for over six months, trying to figure out what we can do to improve on this light fixture.

It finally dawned on us what was really wrong with the kitchen. So this is what we did...


So yeah, we no longer have a sink, a stove, a dishwasher or a microwave.

All meals are eaten outside. I get back home, slip into comfortable clothes, and we go out to eat at a restaurant. We side-step to Home Depot to find a light switch there and a box there. We get back home at 9:30pm every day. I get enough time to read emails. That's it. Then I have a ritual of taking 50 photos of my kitchen before going to bed, take my medicine, and go night-night.

Can anyone blame me?


Another new post below.

Talking to the point

This is one of those letters seeking help with a personal situation. I had to share it with my readers.

Click to enlarge.

Oil Refineries in Haifa

My dad is in China so I'm out of drawings to post. I have to revert to photos.

This is a photo of my hometown - Haifa, Israel on a very hazy day in April when Khamsin visits it for fifty days. Khamsin is the sandy storms that come from Egypt with very hot and dry temperatures during the Springtime.

But I digress, as I will throughout this post.

Here's a photo of Haifa.

Circled in red are Haifa's Oil Refineries. Or what Saddam Hussein's intelligence mistook for a nuclear reactor.

Why? Because of its shape. Here's a closeup of our "nuclear reactor."

Okay, so I ask you intelligent readers - we have one Jewish state in the world. We have the third largest populated city in this Jewish state - Haifa. This is where all the braniacs go to study at the Technion (The Middle Eastern MIT). Knowing that Israelis value their lives, does it really make sense to any thinking human being that the Jews would place a nuclear reactor smack dab in the middle of one of the most populated Jewish cities in Israel?

Needless to say this was a big joke for all of us when Saddam Hussein shot a Scud Missile attempting to hit this innocent looking oil refinery. He ended up hitting a shopping mall that was in its last construction phases. The mall was promptly renamed Scud Mall and the name stuck to this day. If you visit the mall, there's a photo of the Scud Missile penetrating the roof of the mall and the tip of it sitting at rest at the bottom floor.

Digressing again to a true story about the Technion. For those who have never heard of the Technion, here's a brief description:

As Israel's oldest and premier institute of science and technology, the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology has been an active and leading participant in Israel's establishment and development. With supreme effort and unyielding dedication, deserts have bloomed, swamps have been transformed into fertile agricultural valleys, and sand has given way to silicon. Israel is now recognized as one of the world's most prominent high-tech innovators, and has been called the second Silicon Valley.

The Technion is pretty much the Middle Eastern MIT in many ways. Getting in is extremely difficult and graduating is just as difficult. I was one of those unlucky student thrown out after three semesters because I failed Calculus three semesters in a row (they had a rule you have to pass it on the third semester. The rule was changed a year after I was thrown out. Today you can pass it anytime within your four-five year degree). When I registered for Calculus in the US I was terrified about being thrown out again, only to find out that the level of Calculus they teach at the Technion is what is taught here at the Master's degree level. I passed it here with 100's on all my exams because it was just rehashing material from my high school years.

Due to a very lengthy process of being thrown out from the Technion I ended up studying four semesters there. Four semesters of Civil Engineering.

There was one famous story that went from one year of Civil Engineers to the following. There was a course in a third year of Civil Engineering where the semester project was to measure the height of the oil refineries in Haifa.

The same exact exercise was given every single semester to all students taking this course.

The culture of cheating at the Technion was definitely a well known fact among all students. I don't know if that is still true, but back then you couldn't pass courses without cheating. Cheating was mostly copying class projects and homework from previous year students.

Well, this one semester - all the students did their usual "diligent" work and submitted their measurements to the professor. Needless to say, everyone passed. Well, not everyone. There was ONE student who failed. He was the laughing stock of the semester because everyone else cheated from previous year's measurements whereas this asshole actually did the project the way he was taught in class. This was one of those students that wouldn't take a fail after his hard work, so he contested the grade. The Professor refused to speak to him saying he should realise that if everyone got the same measurement and he was the only one off - he's wrong. The student went to the higher ranking professors in the department and filed an official contest against his grade requesting to prove his paper.

When his case came to the board - he methodically showed everyone his paper and how he reached this measurement. Everyone was floored and an investigation began.

Turned out that a couple of years earlier there was a slight addition in height to the refineries due to complaints from the city of the air pollution caused by it. The student was right.

The professor was no longer allowed to give the same project in following semesters.

While I never did make it to this particular class, I'm still proud of myself for not cheating like everyone else just to pass a course. I just can't see the pride of graduating from anywhere knowing you cheated your way through.

The Lions Parade - The Explanation

To answer your questions of why would the lions be there, or why not, I bring you my dad's photos (digitally enhanced to remove family members).




Or check out other photographs:

http://www.galenfrysinger.com/germany_munich_artist_lions.htm

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=103&article=40434&archive=true

Memories from Munich

I received this drawing from my dad last week with the explanation, "Enclosed, memories from Munich 2005. The lions are real and made on me an unforgettable impression."

My dad expects me to write back to him my opinion on each of his drawings. He respects my opinion and often tries to do what I tell him needs fixing. I'm not very good at faking flattery, and I'm often blunt with him.

So here's what I replied with: "Very interesting impression. Are the people real size? They look tiny."

My dad has a very dry sense of humour. He never tries to make anyone laugh. And he hardly laughs himself. But somehow people always end up laughing from what he says. Mostly because it's so ridiculous and outrageous that they can't believe he actually said it. Most people would think it tactless to say what he says. I grew up feeling mostly embarrassed by things he'd say that would make people laugh. I just never thought it was funny. Needless to say, his response to my email caught me off guard.

"You are right. The people were too tiny. I made them to match the height of the doors around, but comparing to lions it didn’t look right. So I raised the doors and enlarged the population a little. The lions are the same, but they have too much fat after consuming all the people, who are already out of my picture. See the corrections."