Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Best song in a long, long time
Yeah, I know, total gashmius......a part of me still loves this stuff - Manic Street Preachers
Please put down that gun...
Anybody that lives in Israel gets pretty comfortable around people with weapons (that is, if you subscribe to the idea that "we" are the good guys...). So I was a little surprised at the weaponry that I see all over the place here in Manila.
Granted, I like it when people have guns around me, which I know is a bit of a hard thing for many "Americans" to stomach, at least in the public arena. However, I was a bit taken back with the fact that the guards here carry......shotguns. And while not "sawed-off", these things have a really short barrel.
You don't have to be a gun-nut to figure out, if they have to use things, G-d forbid, others may get, well, taken down with the bad guys. I dunno, I get these sense that in Israel there is a bit more of a premium on hitting just the bad guy than here.
Now, you may think that I may be a bit odd in being taken back by the shotgun phenomenon here. Fair enough.
But in today's paper (they dropped it off at my hotel room) they talked about how the heads of the police and army (mind you, I am NOT making this up here.....) had a media-publicized round of target practice. Why might one ask? Because, it would seem, according to the head of the police here, that the cops are not too handy with their weapons (loosely stated).
Granted, I like it when people have guns around me, which I know is a bit of a hard thing for many "Americans" to stomach, at least in the public arena. However, I was a bit taken back with the fact that the guards here carry......shotguns. And while not "sawed-off", these things have a really short barrel.
You don't have to be a gun-nut to figure out, if they have to use things, G-d forbid, others may get, well, taken down with the bad guys. I dunno, I get these sense that in Israel there is a bit more of a premium on hitting just the bad guy than here.
Now, you may think that I may be a bit odd in being taken back by the shotgun phenomenon here. Fair enough.
But in today's paper (they dropped it off at my hotel room) they talked about how the heads of the police and army (mind you, I am NOT making this up here.....) had a media-publicized round of target practice. Why might one ask? Because, it would seem, according to the head of the police here, that the cops are not too handy with their weapons (loosely stated).
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Beit Neeman B'Yisrael
So we bought a house a few weeks ago, here in Maale Adumim, just up the street from where we are renting. That said, I am not sure if saying that we “bought” it is grammatically correct – the whole process of buying real estate here is much more dragged out here that in the US.
Here, one starts making payments towards the final sale price pretty soon after signing the contract. From my experience in the US, typically there is a down payment, then a lull, than a really huge check at the end (“settlement”).
Not so here – one basically starts paying 2 rents/mortgages once the contract is signed. So, to say that “we bought” a house may not be correct, but we have signed for it, and it will, at least per the contract, become ours in July.
The house is really nice, I am very excited about it – it is 4.5 bedrooms, nice “salon”, mirpeset (balcony). The master bedroom is new; it has cathedral ceilings, walk-in closet, a lot of space. We are going to have a “garden” as they call it in back, overlooking the Dead Sea. Balls thrown out the back of our house will be gone forever to the wadi (valley) below – there is a “security patch” between the garden and the wadi for police to use, but aside from that, it is a pretty steep drop-off.
The house is a 2-family (“du-mishpachti”) unit, just up the street from the Mitzpe Nevo neighborhood in Maale Adumim. The house is technically in “Klei Shir”. It is in a more mixed neighborhood, vis-à-vis religious observance than where we are renting right now.
All in all, we are very excited to be able to, finally, settle down.
Here, one starts making payments towards the final sale price pretty soon after signing the contract. From my experience in the US, typically there is a down payment, then a lull, than a really huge check at the end (“settlement”).
Not so here – one basically starts paying 2 rents/mortgages once the contract is signed. So, to say that “we bought” a house may not be correct, but we have signed for it, and it will, at least per the contract, become ours in July.
The house is really nice, I am very excited about it – it is 4.5 bedrooms, nice “salon”, mirpeset (balcony). The master bedroom is new; it has cathedral ceilings, walk-in closet, a lot of space. We are going to have a “garden” as they call it in back, overlooking the Dead Sea. Balls thrown out the back of our house will be gone forever to the wadi (valley) below – there is a “security patch” between the garden and the wadi for police to use, but aside from that, it is a pretty steep drop-off.
The house is a 2-family (“du-mishpachti”) unit, just up the street from the Mitzpe Nevo neighborhood in Maale Adumim. The house is technically in “Klei Shir”. It is in a more mixed neighborhood, vis-à-vis religious observance than where we are renting right now.
All in all, we are very excited to be able to, finally, settle down.
Long time no blogging...
I can’t believe how fast time has moved. Was only a short time ago that we starting with out posting to this blog, and we were able to do it quite regularly. Things just got so busy…..
On that note, I can say with all honesty that I (and I will go ahead and speak for Elana as well)/we have never been so busy as we are now. There seems to be so much stuff that we need to get through, just to be able to get to bed. Part of this maybe due to the “everything is harder in Israel” thing, but I do not think that the society is really responsible for our phenomenon.
Most likely, it is just a little harder to get stuff done, combined with both of us working, keeping the house in order, buying a house (for another posting), just dealing with the moment to moment work.
Just to be straight, things are great, never been happier. Just very busy, and with that, our blogging has fallen way by the wayside.
I am on a trip to the Phillipines now, so with all of the air travel, I hope to be able to write a good bit and get everybody up to speed.
On that note, I can say with all honesty that I (and I will go ahead and speak for Elana as well)/we have never been so busy as we are now. There seems to be so much stuff that we need to get through, just to be able to get to bed. Part of this maybe due to the “everything is harder in Israel” thing, but I do not think that the society is really responsible for our phenomenon.
Most likely, it is just a little harder to get stuff done, combined with both of us working, keeping the house in order, buying a house (for another posting), just dealing with the moment to moment work.
Just to be straight, things are great, never been happier. Just very busy, and with that, our blogging has fallen way by the wayside.
I am on a trip to the Phillipines now, so with all of the air travel, I hope to be able to write a good bit and get everybody up to speed.
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