New Lady

I've brought a new lady into my relationship with Sweetie. And it's one of the best things I ever did. Her name is Jill. And she's the voice on our GPS unit. It's absolutely brilliant, because now, when we get lost, Sweetie can yell and curse at Jill. While I sit perfectly innocent in the passenger seat. It's amazing. Highly recommended. In fact, she was recommended to me by several sets of aunts and uncles. Always listen to the wisdom of those older than you (I don't dare call them "elders"!)




Last weekend, after a fairly uninspiring trip to an international supermarket called "Jungle Jim's" (I'm sure it's much more pleasant on a weekday when it isn't completely mobbed), we spent Sunday strolling along the local "gorge trail," which skirts some historic sites related to the early days of jazz recording. We've been blessed with absolutely amazingly warm and beautiful weather lately (Sweetie thinks I'm a big liar for all the horrible tales I told him of Midwest weather).

Today I inaugurated a "Hebrew lunch table" at the college where I work. One student showed up (others are interested, but were busy today with the election), which I actually found to be highly encouraging. We spoke Hebrew for about an hour, and I was feeling really proud of myself afterwards, especially as I headed off for 80 minutes of observing a Japanese class. This must be good for my brain! Right?!

Happy Birthday

This month, it was my turn for a birthday. Sweetie spoils me and showered me with gifts and surprises. For my actual birthday, we went to Yellow Springs, Ohio for a brunch at "The Winds" restuarant, which was really lovely. I had a delicious borlotti beans and orzo dish, which at the time, did not seem that large, but it filled me up for about 6 hours! Unusual for me, because generally I like to eat every few hours. We walked around quaint Yellow Springs, enjoyed the fall colors, and visited some artists' galleries.

It's really a cute little town, but sadly, the college located there (Antioch) has apparently GONE OUT OF BUSINESS, which is really quite sad for a town like that. I am not sure how it is going to affect the local businesses.

This past week, I did a bit of traveling for work, and ventured to three liberal arts colleges in Minnesota. I really enjoyed the town of Northfield, in particular. It had a very British feel and had the usual assortment of upscale college-town gift shops, bakeries, and decent restaurants.

I think that is what our town is missing -- it has a college, but really is not in any way a "college town."

Back on the Grid!

Sweetie and I FINALLY got Internet service at home after many trials and tribulations that I will not even go into. In the end, we subscribed for a wireless service called BridgeMaxx, which is working fairly well (if a tad slow sometimes). Hooray!

We've been trying to get away from the rather, ummm, limited town where we live, at least once each weekend. One weekend we ventured to Indianapolis for an incredible dinner for Sweetie's birthday. Oakley's Bistro has a somewhat uninspiring location at a strip mall, but the food was divine! We really enjoyed our dinner and I enjoyed having some inspired food for a change.

Last weekend, we took a train from Connersville to Metamora, where, little did we know, a HUGE "Canal Days" festival was underway. This photo was taken there in one of the few square feet that was not occupied by several people. We really enjoyed ourselves and the injection of "Americana."

Today, we ventured to Oxford, Ohio, which is a nice college town. We had a nice lunch at Kona Bistro (bistros seems to be the theme...) and walked around the town and filled up on the much cheaper gas there. We've learned that virtually everywhere has cheaper gas than our town, so we justify our weekend journeys by filling up the tank at a much lower cost!

Still No Internet

Despite many valiant attempts, we STILL do not have Internet access at home. Our attempt with a THIRD provider failed on Friday and after approximately 30 calls over the weekend, I finally rescheduled the install for today. But, I have little faith that someone will actually show up and finish the install job that was begun on Friday. And let's not even think about when/if we might get someone from the cable company to come out and dig up our yard to bury the newly layed cable.

All very disconcerting. The owner of our rental house had a HOME OFFICE that was operational until a few days before we moved in. So, I am completely baffled why no one has been able to get any form of communication activated in our home. No phone lines working. No cable working.

So, we are feeling very isolated (Sweetie much more so than me, since he remains many thousand miles away from his home country and family and friends).

Living in the Boonies

A quick post to stay that I WILL revive my blog asap. I was unaware when we moved that we would be living in a "rural" area for internet purposes, and my first attempt at home internet access failed. So, now I am trying another provider. One that is rumored to be going out of business. Yes, it's that bad. There just aren't any good options. Earthlink offered to hook me up to satellite(!) internet for $99.99/month. HEL-LO. No, thank you. I am tempted to return to a life of dial-up....

Transitions

A photo from Africa -- I believe it needs a little Photoshopping magic but that will have to wait!

I apologize of the lack of posts recently. I have been rather unrooted lately, and general busy-ness aside, I find it hard to muster any inspired, coherent thoughts.

On the good news side, my job search has come to a conclusion and I was able to snag a fabulous position at a small, private, liberal arts school. My position involves coordinating exchange programs with Japan, so I really could not imagine anything better for me. I start soon and fortunately do not have much free time to become apprehensive about my return to the working world after 1 1/2 years.

As many of you know, the US economy is not in great shape these days and I was concerned about the prospect of job hunting in these conditions. In the end, it will have been exactly two months from my arrival in the US to my start in a new position. I think that is excellent and am quite proud of myself!

I did encounter enormous amounts of competition for all the positions I applied for. In the end, connections (recommendations from people who know the hiring manager) really made a difference for me. I think utilizing good connections is virtually the only way to get a position these days, and even with them, you do not always get the job (this wasn't the first time I had used my connections -- it was just the first successful time).

Well, I cannot possibly explain in words how excited I am to be able to work on Japan-related activities again. It involves a move to a very small town with very limited dining and cultural options, but I think being part of a diverse and vibrant college campus will make all the difference. As I told Sweetie, we must befriend the international students and invite them over for potlucks to keep our tastebuds amused!

Finally - my Africa Trip Log

First of all, huge thanks to everyone who comments on my blog!! Much appreciated!! I do enjoy having this creative outlet, even if I haven't been able to update it as frequently as I would like!

Africa

It has been three months since our return from Africa, and I'm finally sitting down to write up some of our adventures.

The Start

I vaguely recall that we took another one of those extremely early flights (for some unknown reason, there is a huge swath of time during the day in which no flights leave from Tel Aviv, therefore, most flights are at one ungodly hour or another). Sweetie and I ran into an acquaintance at the gate, who was boarding our same flight. Small world. "Friend" was happy to have met us, because we had booked an escort in Johannesburg to get us through immigration and onto our next flight and he tagged along. As we were waiting for our bags, we made some joke about how my bags often go missing and were surprised that my bag was actually spit out on to the conveyor belt. I did a small dance of joy.

The route to the domestic terminal was not entirely straightforward and our escort was able to jump us through all the lines at various junctures. Hooray.

Our flight to Cape Town was over an hour late departing. I had one of those experiences where I fell asleep on the plane, woke up later expecting us to be halfway to our destination, only to look out the window and see that we were still on the *&*$ tarmac!!

I was very happy when we finally arrived in Cape Town, only to pull Sweetie's bag off the belt and then wait and wait and WAIT for mine. I knew the drill from Sicily (didn't get my bag for five days) and raced out to the claim desk like a mad woman, dragging our driver behind me. Once inside the baggage office, Sweetie took over while I had a small breakdown in the corner of the office. It's just that this has happened to me so many times and I was just EXHAUSTED and totally not wanting to deal with a missing bag YET AGAIN on my vacation.

It was all very civilized in the office and no one was panicked about their missing bags. An African woman dragging a kid along actually tapped me to see if I was in line. How refreshing compared to life in Israel!!

Word was that the bags would be delivered by midnight and no one was worried, so I decided to stop having a breakdown. We left with a form in hand.

We arrived at the lovely Villa Belmonte, which I selected using Tripadvisor.com since we arrived one day before our tour group. It was a nice room, but had no view. There were, however, chairs outside with a great, close view of Table Mountain. We had dinner at the Villa with some much-needed wine. The food was decent, though service was slightly spotty and the Kenny G Christmas music was about 8 months early (or 4 months late, take your pick) and a bit odd.

DAY TWO

Word on my bag (via the customer service number) was that it came in on the 10AM flight and we later learned that it really DID come in on the 10AM flight!

Breakfast was fabulous on the terrace -- gorgeous weather, nice tea, great selection and cook-to-order options too.

Streisand show tunes were slightly odd background music (but better than Kenny G Christmas, I suppose...).

Sweetie's South African friends picked us up and took us to Camps Bay for lunch -- gorgeous area on the seaside. We indulged in some lemon merengue pie and Malva pudding for dessert. YUM-MY.

We later transferred to our lodging at the Mt. Nelson hotel. We settled in. I took advantage of one of the spa services, as there is not a single place in Israel that can perform any sort of waxing under even moderately hygienic conditions. Only problem was that there was a screaming child in the waiting area and I actually found myself saying out loud, "OMG - get her out of here." The mother shot me a dirty look, but to be fair to me, it was completely inappropriate for a child to be in there.

We had an amazing dinner at the hotel's restaurant -- the kind of inventive, cutting-edge foods (foams and the like) that I expected but never found in Israel. We had oysters, and then I had a mushroom arrancini -- like a risotto in deep fried balls with foam and a tapenade. For dessert, we had "Green or Red?" -- six apple-inspired desserts, including an apple sorbet with some liquor in it that was absolutely exquisite!