Our first full day (9/27, or as it would be written here, 27/9) was spent traveling from Tel Aviv to Haifa. Not after our obligatory Israeli breakfast, including my fave Shakshuka. We settled into the apartment in the Mercaz HaCarmel area of Haifa. We love our apartment and especially the location. We have a park (mostly the wooded with benches kind) close by and HaNassi Street just beyond. The Haifa Auditorium and the Cinematheque are on the other side of the park and a few blocks further is the Haifa Zoo and Gan HaEm garden. This week is the Haifa International Film Festival mostly at the Auditorium and Cinematheque, but will also include free concerts (Gan HaEm) and outdoor movies. I have my list of movies to attend! Bonnie and I are sifting through the lists figuring out which movies to attend. Our Hebrew is taking small baby steps (I think I may be at the toddler level), but we’re trying!
The kids have adjusted quite easily to the time changes and sleeping through the night. Bonnie and I, on the other hand, are still having 3 hour sleep intervals, including 2 hour naps. Of course, this has not stopped our exploring. We walked to the Louis Promenade with the great views of Haifa and the Mediterranean Sea. We noticed the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, which we are looking forward to checking out soon. Then, on to the Bahá'í gardens and Shrine of the Báb, both so beautiful! The walk back home was all uphill in that afternoon heat, nothing the awesome falafels couldn’t take care of! A word on the animal life here. We have these extraordinary bats in and out of a front yard tree in the evenings. They are huge! We have been enjoying watching these pterodactyls from our sunroom. I have yet to find out the species, but I’ll ask around the biology department. I have been enjoying morning looking out into the garden at all the new birds cruising around. Can’t ID them yet, but we are seeing doves, LBBs that almost act like hummingbirds, and even spotted parrots (as it turns out African rose-ringed parakeet) in the tree across the street. The crows are different too (Hooded crows, Corvus cornix). Looking forward to seeing more. At some point in the blog, I’ll have to tackle the feral cat thing here.
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Jamie KneitelThis blog will follow my experiences as a Fulbright Scholar in Israel (University of Haifa) during the 2017-18 academic year. Also check out the family blog for another perspective. Archives
May 2018
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