in my life

It seems that I have only made one post in 2018 and this is a travesty. A TRAVESTY. The self-disappointment is strong with this one.

If I had to summarize the past few months - or, as I have been conditioned to think of months now, Q1 - they have been, in a word, workworkworkworkworkworkwork. To a truly ridiculous extent. Here's the line I've been giving when people ask about work: I'm okay with the job, I really like the people, I'm learning new things, but the workload is a challenge. It's a diplomatic way of putting it, but it's true. It's hard to say I'm okay with the way things are, given that there were weeks where I literally didn't do anything other than work all day until very (very) late, fall into bed at home, and go back to work, recovering a little on weekends. But I'm also aware that this is a new job with a learning curve and that it's a start up, and that this kind of workload is - I hope, I hope, I hope - temporary.

The good thing is that the past two weeks - the start of my fourth month on the job - have been a bit chiller, and I've been able to leave work at around 7-8pm almost every day, which has been a relief and hopefully a sign that things are getting better. I'm caught up on a lot of my TV shows - this year I'm watching more firefighter shows than I have since Third Watch was on (look, 9-1-1 has Peter Krause and Connie Britton and Station 19 has Okieriete Onaodowan, it's really hard to choose.) I got to see marina participate in a panel about SFF books at a local con. I've watched almost all of the movies nominated for this year's Academy Awards (only two left! This MIGHT BE THE YEAR I watch them all.)

More good things:

1. This year, work craziness and all, also included two (two!!!) trips to London, including two (two!!!!!) times seeing Hamilton, from pretty freaking amazing seats, and including hanging out with both raven and cesy ♥ and also visiting Stratford-upon-Avon for the first time.

2. This winter and spring so far have had absolutely breathtaking weather and I've been out in nature almost every weekend, seeing the flowers. I don't think there's a word for it in English, but in Hebrew it's called pricha - Blooming, used as a noun. "Do you want to go hiking this weekend? I'm in the mood for some Blooming." "The Blooming's about to start up north." "Do you know any good spots for winter Blooming in the south?" Anyway: it's been flowers in nature, week after week after week, and it's beautiful.

(Relatedly to points both 1 and 2: last week a friend and I went to see the poppies blooming on the way south. There were some massive fields by Kiryat Gat in full bloom. I had just been to the British Museum 2 weeks before, and was pretty freaking impressed by the Lachish reliefs. Clearly, His Majesty Mr. Sennacherib had worked really hard to capture the city and was quite obviously proud of it, and there I was, living 50 minutes away and had never visited the place! But the poppy fields were in an area called the Lachish geographic area so I assumed it was close by, and lo and behold, Tel Lachish - what remains of the ancient city - was only a 10-minute drive away, so we stopped by there too for a short walk. There's not much left there - some city walls, the gate, a few walls from the palace and a well, and mostly grass and flowers and birds and a view. It's a great vantage point; I can see why Sannecherib wanted it.)

3. We had the most amazing seder, and I honestly feel so blessed to have such great people in my family. It was the first time in many years we've done a seder with my dad's side of the family, and the first time we've done it in the kibbutz where my cousins live.

My dad was the youngest of four children, all of whom had 3 children of their own. Other than my sisters and I, my cousins are all married with children. Including a few guests, this made for a seder of almost 40 people, including over 10 kids, from babies and toddlers to 14. Unlike all of the previous seders I've been to, which were all ultimately hosted and led by my parents' generation, this one was organized by our generation (although it was funded by my parents' generation, I will say). There was a steering committee, which included one member of each of the four siblings' families; they were the ones who organized the affair and delegated people into subcommittees: food committee, decoration committee, treasury, haggadah committee, nostalgia committee, toddler corner committee, afikoman toys committee, afikoman committee.

The haggadah itself was beautiful. That team included two of my cousins' husbands, one of whom is the most traditional of us (he does kiddush every weekend), another of whom is an educator and principal of a boarding school, and my mom. They printed a new haggadah for the occasion, drawing from the traditional haggadah and from the kibbutz haggadah, which have things in common but are different; they included more songs and poetry, and delegated in advance who would read what aloud so the children would have time to prepare. They included a section from a 1948 haggadah that my grandparents had kept from their kibbutz: its pages are crumbling and yellow, but it's the same pages that the kibbutz members wrote and sat and read from in their seder exactly 70 years ago, in the middle of a war, two weeks after 7 of their members had been killed in the same afternoon, just a few weeks before the state was to be declared.

The readings were great, the food was nice, a friend I invited because she and her kid were alone this year felt super welcomed by the family, which is all I could hope for, and then it was afokiman time, aka the committee I was on. And friends. The afikoman hunt was, if I may say so myself, amazing. My cousin and I planned and built an escape room for the kids, with about 20 different puzzles and clues and locked boxes they had to solve along the way, in order to find the code to unlock the treasure chest where the afikoman was locked. We built it in a way that we hoped all the kids would be involved in, from the 7 year olds to the 14 year olds, from the Canadian kids who didn't really know the others to the kibbutz kids who grew up in each other's houses, and it went pretty dang great. My cousin and I were chaperoning and while I was mildly anxious throughout at the constant shrieking, the kids throwing tantrums, the one kid crying, and the general feeling that world war three was about to start, my cousin - who was the mother of 25% of the kids and slightly more experienced with kids than i - kept saying "This is SO GREAT LOOK HOW WELL THEY'RE WORKING TOGETHER" with stars in her eyes, and ultimately, "We kept them occupied for an entire hour. Mission freaking accomplished."

It was definitely one of the most exhausting hours I have spent recently - kudos to anyone who works or spends a lot of time with kids, honestly, wow - but I do think it went really well, and overall it was a really awesome night and I appreciate my family a lot.

*

Not that you would know it from my prolific posting in 2018 or anything, but like, I'm still super into MCU. Just putting that out there for the record. May I survive this upcoming movie, good god.

God, the holidays this year have been a blessing and a curse. A blessing because - so. Many. Days. Off. Rosh Hashana gave me a five-day holiday weekend; the next week was split in two due to two days off in the middle for Yom Kippur; the weekend following was a four-day holiday weekend, ending tomorrow, and the immediately following weekend will also be a four-day holiday weekend. I can't remember the last time the holidays fell so close to weekends and gave me so much time off. It's been so incredibly amazing to just have so much vacation.

A curse because, first of all, the holidays will end and even tomorrow I have no idea how I'm going to bring myself to go to work. And also because having so much time off has had me just reveling in it and not doing any of the actual reading or writing I WANT to do. All I've been doing is watching TV and movies - so many TV shows omg - and, okay, meeting family and friends, which is important, but like, I also have about a million fic tabs open, plus yuletide canon I need to review, plus recs I wanted to make, plus photos I wanted to edit, and my mind just kind of glazes over them and then goes back to "hey but this is the perfect time to watch the pilot of a show that was recommended to me five years ago why not give it a shot."

***

To wit: I wrote the first part of this post last night, and then I was like, well, I could go on writing, but I could also watch an episode of Killjoys and then be too tired to do anything else and then go to sleep. And now it is tomorrow.

*

The holidays themselves this year were, all told, pretty marvelous and mostly a whole lot of relaxing. I spent most of Rosh Hashana at home, hanging out with family. I watched a local, utterly charming, production of the musical Ordinary Days. I spent Yom Kippur at my folks' place with my mom and sister - we put together 500 pieces of my (GODDAMN) 9000-piece puzzle from China, and watched some movies, including a rewatch of Top Secret - how was Val Kilmer ever that young, Jesus - and Natalie Portman's directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, which was interesting: less political than I'd thought it would be, very much an imperfect directorial debut, but the historical reconstruction of British-Mandate-era Israel/Palestine was well done, and it's always interesting to see her speaking Hebrew.

In between watching new TV shows, I was satisfactorily social in Sukkot: Friday morning, I met a friend for breakfast and brainstormed the "Bucky's grandchildren" MCU AU that I will never write but want to exist. In the afternoon I met friends I haven't seen for a long, long time, who had the most enchanting baby I can remember meeting in the past few years (and the past few years have been filled with meeting babies, which I guess is what happens in your thirties.) This kid is 11 months old, and we'd never met. So his dad opens the door, holding him, and the baby just smiles at me, looks directly into my eyes, and holds his hands out for me to pick him up. Just like that! So I picked him up and he was just happy to be held and stared at my face, fascinated the entire time I was holding him. I am not used to babied looking into my eyes so closely and for so long. Like, I myself barely look people in the actual eyes when I talk to them. But this baby was like, seriously, flattering. He was very cute, bonus points he didn't cry, bonus bonus point the entire discussion with his parents did not revolve around 100% baby, so win for all.

On Saturday I spent a nice afternoon with a friend visiting from the States, who took it upon herself to deliver five boxes of Pop Tarts of which I am now the owner. And Sunday was Sukkot Eve, which ended up being great: my parents and middle sister are all abroad for the holidays this year, so baby sis and I did some errands, dropped by my grandmother's to say happy holiday, and then drove up to my cousins in the kibbutz to spend the evening with them.

The kibbutz is always such a great place to visit. First of all, because my aunt and cousins there, though I don't keep in touch regularly and usually don't see them more than maybe twice a year, are all wonderful people, and all of them have miraculously adorable (and friendly!) children.

Second, because hearing stories about the kibbutz is just such a fascinating anthropological experience. More than anything, it always reminds me of Gilmore Girls town hall politics with bonus communal services. Stories from this week included learning about the three marriages who, over the years, kind of rotated their couples so that everyone's biological children are also the others' step-children and not everyone is exactly cool with each other, which makes seating arrangements in the communal dining hall a mess. Or: the fact that the pool manager announced unilaterally that this year the pool would be closed for Yom Kippur, which caused an outrage in the kibbutz, whose secular identity is very important to it, and who did not vote on this decision, even though the same issue arose last year and apparently just no one bothered to handle it in time and make sure there was an available lifeguard for the holiday. Or the big dramatic politics over who would be the VIP ceremonial guests (in ushpizzin) at the kibbutz's sukkah this yeah, and the subtly worded arguments about it in their weekly newsletter. It's just a... slice of life I am not used to, ha.

We watched the kibbutz's annual Sukkot performance, which included various family members sprinkled throughout the ceremony; in the first-graders' dance and the fifth-graders' dance and the retired ladies dance and the cool parents' song. There were rhymes poems and readings about the kibbutz's produce this year (apparently they closed their cowshed! And also grew many tons of almonds this year. I didn't even know they farmed almonds.)

***

To wit, ahaha, I actually stopped writing mid post again yesterday, for it is now Wednesday, three days after I began to write this post. So you know what, I'm just going to go ahead and hit post now, and then next time I can focus on squeeing (squeeing! I'm BRINGING IT BACK) about Pitch and Supergirl and many other wonderful shows gracing my TV screen these day.

Happy holidays, all who celebrate <3

I hope everyone had an awesome amazing delightful Pesach! Our Seder was pretty great, I ate roughly 10 kilos of food really who's counting, and I keep meaning to post stuff and not doing it.

But I just saw this and had to share though I assume many of you are familiar with it:



(Embed doesn't seem to be working! But here is a link, it's an Easter vs Passover Daily Show clip.)

1. loooool
but 2. leg of a baby lamb? I've only ever known to use chicken! How did lamb get in there?

A day late, happy Easter to anyone celebrating, or meaningful Easter, or however you choose to mark the day. It's funny, there was a convo going around yesterday about how slashable some (New Testament) biblical characters are (lol let's face it, it was Jesus and his boys, I mean, who else is there). I didn't participate in the conversation - I'd read it if it were well done, but New Testament fic is still outside my comfort zone - but it had this feeling of discovery, omg these dudes are slashable, which haha, yes. Bible: still the biggest fandom out there. And so very ficcable.

On that note, It's basically killing me that there are no Jewish characters in hockey. Like - even Bandom had Gabe Saporta! In hockey, I have no easily available go-to Jewish characters I can play around with. There are just under a handful of Jewish players scattered around various teams I don't really care about. There are NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Players' Association's Donald Fehr - thanks, fascinating - and right now, the most openly Jewish (in that he has at least mentioned it) dude out there is Mitch Korn, goalie coach for the Washington Capitals. I can't write about seder shenanigans at the Korn household!

I remain in wait for Josh Ho-Sang to make it to the NHL, whenever that happens. I don't know if I'll still be in hockey, and I don't know if I'll manage to be fannish enough about the Islanders, but it will be a start.)

Okay, let us back to work. Happy holidaaaaaaaaay(s)!

Let me remedy that, *I* DID NOT KNOW ABOUT THIS:

Noah (in theaters March 2014)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Emma Watson ...Ila
Logan Lerman ...Ham
Jennifer Connelly ...Naameh
Russell Crowe ...Noah
Anthony Hopkins ...Methuselah
Kevin Durand ...Og
Douglas Booth ...Shem


Exodus (in theaters December 2014)

Director: Ridley Scott
Aaron Paul ...Joshua
Christian Bale ...Moses
Joel Edgerton ...Rhamses
Ben Kingsley ...???
Sigourney Weaver ...Tuya (??)
John Turturro ...Seti (???)
María Valverde ...Séfora (????)
Gerard Monaco ...Scientist (?????)

SO I HAVE THOUGHTS ON THIS. NOT REALLY ACTUALLY IT IS MOSTLY A JUMBLE OF FEELINGS. Since I literally want to write everything about this in capslock I'll put it under a cut to spare your eyeballs. ( !!!!! )

BASICALLY: + !!!!! + WHAT. (+SCIENTIST.)

And why isn't Sebastian Stan in the cast, I ask you.

Two days late, but shana tova, everyone ♥ I hope the upcoming year find you well and healthy and happy, as much as you can.

I've spent the three days of the holiday so far with three different branches of the family, relaxing quite a bit, and finishing season 3 of Borgen, which I am pretty convinced I'll be requesting for yuletide because Birgitte/Jeremy/Phillip is a thing that should happen, as should any number of things. (I have a feeling I'll be pretty boring this Yuletide with my requests - Borgen, The Fosters, Orange is the New Black. And... something else.)

The weather here is beautiful. Fall here arrives with the month of Tishrei, and you can feel it in the air. I've had apples with honey, and my grandmother's teiglach, and in this blessed four-day weekend (well, three-and-a-half), many hours of sleep.

This long weekend has also seen a revival of hockey canon (\o/), since the NHL and Player's Association have been trotting out players for a media events and releasing videos into the void. I'm still weirded out by but love the fact that I'm in a fandom where the NHL will just post a video about John Tavares titled "Tavares hip thrusts", or where a team General Manager will come out with the statement “Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will be here forever,” like saying don't worry, fandom, I'll do my best to get your happily ever after.

(And meanwhile, Jonathan Toews himself is posing in Team Canada jerseys with something akin to an expression, and every time I switch back to that tab my mind just goes adfkl;jfs. I mean, I don't think that photo alone is anything to write home about, but in the context of Tazer's fandom narrative - *keysmash*.)

You know what I suck at? Writing timely holiday fic. So let's just pretend I wrote the Lag BaOmer(*) holiday fic ( where every year Gabe Saporta hosts this epic campfire shindig in his backyard forest )

Meanwhile I'll link to the Lag BaOmer ficlet I wrote last year, because why write holiday if you can't self-pimp them annually: Cause I Know This Flame Isn't Dying (American Idol 8/NCIS).

Lag BaOmer is also the Hebrew date of my grandmother's birthday, so this year today she is officially 80. Happy bday ♥. It's also close enough to my grandfather's birthday and the day he died that this is the day she marks his death, which was 15 years ago. We all went to the cemetery and then to her place for dinner and family movies -- she went around town shopping for food that we used to have with my grandfather, taking a stroll in the evening to the pizza place on Osishkin and the hummus on Sokolov and Fredo's Ice Cream. We watched the film made in his remembrance a year after his death, which included lots of young!us looking ridiculous and rare 8mm footage of him from the '70s and '80s taken by a family friend with a film camera. Then we watched the half-hour(!) movie we made for my grandmother's 70th birthday ten years ago, which includes all of us looking ridiculous again and playing various scenes from my grandmother's life over the course of the past 70 years, lolol.

The movie about my grandfather, though; I haven't watched that in a long time, and the footage wasn't as familiar as most family photos, and it was really nice to see. He used to love traveling, and love photography, and you almost always see him with his camera, leaning down for some weird angle shot while everyone else waits around to continue the trip, and it reminded me of myself at times, the way it looked, the way my grandmother described it, and that was nice, that connection, since I didn't remember that about him at all.

So it was a nice evening! And in continuation with my gradual fruit-driven progression into summer, dessert included me eating for the first time this year: grapes, melons, and the most delicious cherries known to man.

*wiki link

The fire is still raging in the north, spreading like OH HEY WILDFIRE and burning the hundreds and hundreds of acres and, every once in a while, property in its path. One of the structure casualties is a boutique hotel/spa -- very possibly Israel's finest -- where a friend of mine was supposed to spend the weekend. There are other things of course, worse things, but you remember the ones you were closest to; I stayed in that hotel twice. I also have this constant stream of memories in my mind now, flashes of all the times I can remember hiking in the Carmel, which I'm trying to hold on to and imprint in my mind because the mountains aren't going to look like that again for a long time. I remember one trip we had there, for a cousin's Bat Mitzvah. Instead of any kind of indoor party, we went on a hike in one of the Carmel forests (which culminated with a barbecue), with her father as the tour guide -- he used to work for the Israeli Nature Protection Organization. At one point he stood next to a large stone and asked us if we could find anything strange about it. We scanned it closely from top to bottom, but found nothing... and then he very carefully lifted a perfectly circular disc that was apparently the naturally carved lid of a perfect narrow tunnel that led deep into the stone, carved by a local spider. And I don't like bugs -- at all -- but the way the tunnels were so well camouflaged and so, so delicately covered, was beautiful. And I am now feeling really inappropriately sad about those spiders :(

I'm also feeling enormously, ridiculously sentimental about the foreign aid we're receiving. Like, I had actual tears in my eyes for a moment there today. It really means a lot. And, okay, suddenly getting this kind of validation (by any country that is not the US) kind of drove home how alone it feels the rest of the time, and -- I'm a very harsh critic of Israeli policy, but man, it feels good to know other countries are actively helping out, regardless of proximity or, in some cases, political relations. It's an utterly bizarre place to be in all of a sudden, bu I don't know. I'm weirdly emotional about it. Once again, *hugs world and specifically citizens of those countries. If you're reading this, that probably means you too.*

*

I also had a job interview today, which is not for anything amazing but I think it went fine and we'll see how it goes. And I visited marina. And I went to a movie -- Fair Game, where the hilarious bit is that over here the actors on the posters are billed Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, and Liraz Cherkhi. If you've seen the movie and don't remember her it's because she has a bit part and is totally not one of the leads, except she's an Israeli actress so obviously she needs to be on the poster.

And I still want to post some Hanukkahish thing -- the post is titled "Day 3" and everything -- but I am too tired to produce content, so instead I will self-pimp and link.

Here are 40 Hanukkah-themed fics in various fandoms! I know many of the fandoms and many of the authors and I'm sure there's some great stuff I haven't read in there; sorry I can't provide specific recs, but honestly judging by the authors that entire list looks good. Also because it isn't archived there, I'll link to one more here (again) now that it's holiday appropriate: Rites of [Pass]age by arsenicjade (Gabe Saporta, gen).

I also reserve the right to self pimp (once a year!) so whatever. In the past I've written Eight Hanukkah Candles Lisa Cuddy Lit (House MD, 4700 words, Cuddy gen) and co-wrote (with marina and miarr) Eight Days of Lamberkkah (Adam Lambert/various crossovers, 4600 words). So if you are in the mood for holiday fic, just ~know that they are still there :-)

Reposting the list of all the Passover-themed fics I know of (including my own). Listed alphabetically by fandom, updated with stuff I could find this year:

List of Passover-themed Fics \o/:

My First Seder: A Story In Four Parts by marina (multifandom: DCU, Sherlock Holmes, Firefly, Generation Kill)
For the Want of a Goat by roga (Discworld/Passover)
Family Plagues* by roga (Harry Potter)
Four Sons by roga (Harry Potter)
Kosher for Passover by nightdog_barks (House MD)
Paint the Town Red* by kass (House MD)
Passover by rageprufrock (House MD)
Pesach by pwcorgigirl (House MD)
Prodigal by nightdog_barks (House MD)
End Times* by fairlyironic (Lost)
B'Chol Dor Vador (In Every Generation) by mara (Marvel Comics)
Seder Round Table by bessemerprocess (Pundit RPF)
Next Year in Kinkan Town by shayheyred (Princess Tutu)
Haggadah* by scrunchy (Sports Night)
The Pretty Peculiar Pegasus Pesach by roga (SGA)
Urchatz by miss_porcupine (SGA)
Why is this night different from all other nights? by july_july_july (Star Trek XI)
Passing Over, Passing Out by hyperfocused (The OC)
All the Land of Egypt* by daegaer (Weiss Kreuz)
*Responses to hyperfocused's Plague-Ground challenge from four years ago.

Bible/Prince of Egypt fics that are pretty much just inherently relevant:

Behold, he cometh forth to meet me by seekingferret
Exodus 7:8-13 by miarr (Bible/Good Omens)
Moon River by fresne
Thus Sang Moses by seekingferret
Seven Days by kangeiko
Tambourine Woman by fresne
The River of Memory by sinngrace
Understanding by beatrice_otter
I sayeth unto thee by roga (Prince of Egypt)
Ma'at's Blessings by senmut (Prince of Egypt)

And a special bonus: Meta on the Sports Night Passover episode by kassrachel.

If you know of any more stories that should be added to this list, whether written by you or someone else, whether written three years ago or next week, link me in the comments!

Seder's in four hours so I will not be troubling y'all any more today; chag sameach, happy holiday, happy spring, happy Monday, and so forth :-)

It is officially Purim Eve now, so happy Purim everyone :-) And while I am knee deep in online festivities, I'm afraid I haven't had any RL markers of the holiday at all, other than eating a few hamentaschen on Thursday.

Anyway, I have decided to just shut up and link today:

My Day 1 Purimgifts recs (at de.icio.us); some really awesome ficlets in there. (In an attempt at misdirection, I may or may not have recced my own fic as well. Would I really be that tacky? You decide. In any case, if you think you know which fic I wrote, I probably won't be able to persuade you otherwise...)

From swatkat24, pimping: Why You Should Watch Legend of the Seeker (Illustrated) and Why You Should Watch Seeker II (Illustrated F/F Edition). (I am totally going to start watching this show someday.)

Via cathalin: weddingbeaches's epic Kris/Adam rec list and Assorted Handy Links, so if anyone's been wondering where to start getting into the fandom, that post's for you.

Via winterlive, Robot Unicorn Attack, the game. Music is loud so watch your speakers, but lol, so worth it.

Via honey_wheeler, 'Hey Jude' FNL vid, omg tears. Has spoilers from the Pilot to the Season 4 finale, which I just saw yesterday, and oh, my heart.

For Purim: miarr and her grandmother make hamentaschen: a photo essay.

And lastly, a report of MIT's 2010 Latkes vs. Hamentaschen debate. To quote:

"In response to Grimson, Smith revived the image of the latke by presenting the triple bottom line for measuring success: prosperity, planet, and potatoes. She demonstrated how the triple bottom line explains why the latke is superior for a sustainable world. She added that 2008 was the U.N. Year of the Potato, whereas not once has a hamentash filling had its own year."

OH SNAP. Team Latkes FTW, guys. Happy holiday :-)

I hope you are not sick of picture posts, because if you are, um... I don't know what to do about that because it doesn't look like I'm going to be stopping any time soon :/ But you know, I'm counting on anyone not interested to just scroll on by, no harm done.

So here was the deal about yesterday: Thursday night I went to Jerusalem for a friend who is leaving for India (*envy*)'s goodbye party. The bus ride was awesome, because the person I was sitting next to turned out to be the second assistant director of the second season of Srugim which I adore, so we had a fun conversation (and also she took my number in case she ever has a job she can offer me. IDK! This is how it works.) I slept over at said friend's house, intending to meet hihoplastic on Friday, and when I woke up in the morning, there was SO MUCH NOISE on outside! Children singing, and we could see the street locked for traffic from out the window, and I was all "Seriously dude, how do you live with this racket on all the time?" and she denied it was usually that bad but I had ears.

And then we stepped outside and realized that lo, it really wasn't just your random Friday noise; the street was closed off for a Tu Bishvat festival! So hihoplastic and I basically spent two hours walking up and down the street, watching the kids and the plants and the street performers and the different musical shows. And it was awesome.

Before the photos under the cut, I will just say for people who don't know: Tu Bishvat -- which was officially today -- is the Jewish New Year for Trees, aka the tree birthday! You can wiki it if you want to know more, but in general traditions include hiking outdoors, buying plants and flowers, eating dried fruits, and -- in Israel -- planting trees. It was a Zionist thing. One of the holiday symbols are almond trees, which are locally in bloom, and... yadda yadda, here are the photos:

(ETA after drafting the post I see that hosting the images on Picasa LOOKS easier but the photos have all shrunk and are grainier than they are on my computer and they're really huge in this post so... I don't think I'll be doing that again.)

( Tu Bishvat festival, Jerusalem )

Today -- the actual holiday -- presented surprisingly gross weather! Really hot, the kind of dry heat you get in the summer, but the air was thick and hazy and the sky was dark and gray; Eastern winds, they said, blowing sand from Saudi Arabia or wherever, and when it rained in the afternoon it was the kind of dusty rain that makes your car dirtier instead of cleaning it. I went on a walking tour in Tel Aviv so I actually have some photos from that too, but I am wiped so... maybe someday.

In the meantime, all of the Tu Bishvat photos plus some more I never posted can be found here.

ALSO: Remember how in 2008 (oh god I think it was in 2008...) I went to Poland and Austria with my dad and his family, and then in September I went to Athens with my grandmother? I've kind of been meaning to post photos from there since forever, but clearly that is never going to happen, SO:

Roga goes to Poland and Austria

Roga goes to Athens

There's some cool stuff in there, from lamp posts and breakdancers in Warsaw and storks nesting on chimney tops , churches and Mozart in Vienna, and all the way to hot Greek statues and unwitting Rodney/Superman t-shirt slash in Athens and airplane shots from over the Mediterranean.

...and I am done.