Thanksgiving 2008

Once again I celebrated Thanksgiving here in Israel with my friends. While I missed being with my family who are all gathered in NC for Harlan and Paula's feast, I still had a great time being with my family and friends here. Nothing like 3 turkeys (2 deep fried), homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, cornbread and more to get you in the Thanksgiving spirit. A BIG thank you goes out to Lawrence and Maytal Badzin for being such great hosts. Enjoy the video!

Al-Jazeera, Ha'aretz, Bank Hapoalim, what's next?

Since I've gotten to Israel I've been pretty lucky and have had a few chances for my 15 minutes (ok, 3 seconds) of fame. First, I was in Al-Jazeera for a focus piece on Aliyah for Israel's 60th anniversary. Then, I got to be in a Ha'aretz article about the American elections (still glowing about Obama and the exciting path that the US has decided to follow). 

This morning, though, I think takes the cake. This past Saturday my friends and I ran in a 5k and afterwards there was part of a film crew looking for extras for a project this week. Being recently unemployed (and my friends having the time as well) we took them up on it... and I'm so glad I did. 

I've never been part of a production set before and this was definitely a production. For a simple bank commercial, they had recreated an entire city block set complete with a cafe, bank (duh), fruit stand, secondhand clothes shop and apartment buildings above. For anyone who thinks you're watching a real life scene in a commercial, odds are you're not. They had all of the smallest details down also; halfway through our part they decided the fake sidewalk didn't look authentic enough, so they first splashed all kinds of stuff on it (coffee color, oil color, etc), added some dead leaves to the mix and then when that wasn't enough painted it blue and white instead of red and white!

Anyway, getting back to the point of the story... so we dressed up as runners for the commercial (hence the crew looking for extras at the end of a race). About 25 times we ran for about 5 seconds as part of the end of the commercial. The director does yell "cut" and "action" as many times as they do in movies... pretty cool. 

Certainly it'll be tough to distinguish me from the other runners since our part of the production is probably 2 seconds out of 30, but I'm still looking forward to seeing it on TV!

Profile pix and online dating

Hello to my loyal blog readers-

So, time for me to come out and say it: "I'm on jdate!" 

Yep, after hearing so many good stories and knowing many couples that have met their spouse through the site (including three cousins), I decided to give it a shot myself. 

The primary difference between jdate in the states and jdate in Israel, is that here almost everyone is Jewish, thus rendering the need to find a Jewish partner to more of just finding a partner. I guess it's the Israeli equivalent of match.com or another site that is generic online dating. 

I digress. So I've been on there for about a month and a half now and have not had that much luck. I don't know if it's because there is the language barrier (I write simple sentences in Hebrew), the fact that some of the girls probably get lots of messages making it hard to filter, or another factor. Today, I changed my profile pix in hopes that it would make a difference (one of the recommendations from the jdate gurus) so we'll see if that works...

I've met three girls for dates so far and one for a second date, but nothing's really panned out. I'm going to give it until the end of this month's subscription and then I'll probably drop it unless I see better results. 

Lastly, a blog shout-out to my sister, Paula, who sponsored my second month in hopes that I'd meet someone. Thanks for the Chanukah present, P!

I voted twice :-)

Shhhh, don't tell, but I voted twice. Did I trick the system? Nope!

Today, I exercised my right to vote for the first time as an Israeli citizen. It was for the municipal elections (which I only slightly care about) and I cast my vote for mayor for the man who seeks lower rent for Tel Aviv's residents (doubt that promise will happen). Also, voting here is a much simpler process than in the states. You get two envelopes, one for mayor and one for the party that you want to make up the city council. They are color coded and it's very difficult to make a mistake (unlike on the ballots in American elections).

So, last week I voted in the American election and my candidate emerged victorious and today I voted in my first Israeli election. It's good to be a dual-citizen:-)

YES WE CAN

Anything is possible. Today is a new beginning in the history of the world and one that our generation will forever be grateful for. I have never been more proud to be an American citizen. Hope is a real thing, change is not something to be simply talked about.

The hour is upon us and not only yes we can, but yes we DID!

As President-elect Obama noted himself, however, "this victory tonight is not the change we seek, it is only the chance to make that change." It's time to come together, shed the political rhetoric and work to make the US and the world a better place!