United Statesian

Flowers in the garbage can in Tel Aviv Dear Citizens of the World! Today marks the end of my first week here in Tel Aviv. The focus of my days has been on looking for an apartment to call home the next two or three years. The search has not been easy. It is hard to look for an apartment when you don't know the city and it is double hard when the prices a very high. Tel Aviv is a relatively new city where most buildings came about over the past 50 years, but the first impression is mixed. Most of the buildings are four-story, off-white and very dusty buildings. Old apartment being remodelled...are they paying for those colours? However, many of these older buildings are being renovated inside. Therefore, you never know what you will find on the inside -- much like the flowers in the garbage can in the picture at the top. Reflection of our hotel in a shiny office building There are also lots of nice shiny, new buildings mixed in with the rest. Maybe - if we are lucky -we will end up...

Dear citizens of the world, Almond harvest time has come and gone. We spent a couple days in the pueblo , collecting almonds. It is hard work, but I like it -- well, once a year. This is a photo of the almonds while they are still on the tree with both the outer soft shell and the inner hard shell (as seen in the first picture above). Why is collecting them fun? The process starts by laying large nets under the tree, then I get to use a long stick to whack the tree until it gives up all its' almonds. End of fun part... Then the outer shells have to be taken off (sometimes not so easy). There is then a drying-out period and the last leg is to break the hard inner shell to get the "almond meat" out... careful to not crush the almond in the process. Eat and enjoy all year long. The harvest this year has been bad because there was not enough rain. Many almonds are "fruitless." And a violent downpoor at the end of the season stripped some trees of the fruit just be...