We took the long way home...

Well, some of you may know that we are in Chicago for a visit, what most of you don't know is how long it took us to get here :-) Well, we left Israel on 7/23 in the AM heading to Ohare via Istanbul (Turkish air lines) We were supposed to arrive that day in the early afternoon... Supposed to... In reality, well, we ended up spending 48 hours in Istanbul, not by choice :-(. You see, well, 3 of us were travelling with expired American passports (Maya, Lior & I)We did have valid Israeli passports and proof of American citizenship for all of us, I thought that was plenty... They agreed in Israel were we originated, but, well, the Turks were a bit over zealous when it comes to home land security... suffice it to say the three f us were denied boarding. Danielle, the only one travelling with 2 valid passports decided to board the flight on her own, OK, OK, I did encourage her, she was very upset about not being able to fly, and I was a little concerned about not being able to find seats for all 4 of us on the next flight, I figured the fewer we were the better our chances... Some used the words brave, others chose different adjectives to describe my choice here but hey... She flew, on her own, (granted she had four seats, quite a commodity in today's market) and proved that it can be done.

We found ourselves stranded, with $270, a few expired American credit cards, and an Israeli credit card which I wasn't sure was worth anything outside of Israel (it was...). Maya was very upset for two very good reasons, 1 we were denied boarding, 2. Danielle was on her way... I thought we could make this an adventure, we opened our bags, packed a small bag to take along and headed over to leave our luggage at the "left luggage" so we wouldn't have to shlep around with it for the next 48 hours (until the next flight). We packed swimsuits (hey, hotel, pool, right? WRONG!!) and walked over to discover that the charge would amount to about $50 a day, CASH no credit cards... Quick calculations brought on the realization that we would be spending about 40% of our funds, didn't seem like such a bright idea... So shlep everything we did... next step was the hotel desk, we needed one, CHEAP... 90 Euros? a night? that's about $115 right? is this the cheapest (YES) is the pool nice? POOL???? laugh, that would cost a minimum of 160 euros a night...oh well, no pool I guess.... Don't worry girls we'll have fun... get to the hotel, ($25) drop off luggage, get a cab to the American embassy ($30) wait... talk to some one... I need what? a fax from my husband permitting me to issue passports to my minor daughter? notarized? hummm it's 6AM in Chicago, I wonder how he will react to the phone call waking him up and filling him in on the fact that the 3 of us are in Turkey while his almost 9 year old is flying solo... NOT WELL??? (BIG understatement....) well 3 hours later we walk out of the embassy with 3 emergency passports (good for 1 year, I have to renew those UGHHH) and a new friend, a college student who was there to get an emergency passport because she was going to Israel and did not want her regular passport stamped :-) Well, Alexa showed us how to eat and travel CHEAP in Istanbul :-) we took one more cab to the hotel, but after that it was trains all around to the airport to arrange our flight (2 more hours the next morning, and $500...) downtown to visit the blue masque, authentic restaurants where we dined on lentil soup and bread (cheap and very filling). we managed to arrive in Chicago 48 hours later with some change !!! not much but some! I was proud! why focus on what brought us to Istanbul, focus on the experience and the fact that we managed so well!!!

SO what did we learn... ck your passports, and don't trust things to work out (although they will, maybe just a bit differently than you expect :-)) Carry cash!!! Istanbul is a place to go back to, but without kids and much more money!!!

Happy travelling,
love,
Ronit

Surprise!!!

I'll bet no one expected an update so soon :-) Well, got to keep you on your toes :-).

Truth is we had a great weekend last week, and since the week is almost over, I thought I should post before this too becomes old news... We were planning on camping out by the sea of Galilee (I think that's how you spell it :-0) But the weather was very unpredictable (unusual for this time of year in Israel). So we passed on the camping and went on a day trip instead. We headed up north Saturday morning and sure enough, as soon as we got to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) it started POURING... Swimming was out of the question so we went... are you ready? Church hopping instead! My cousin is an architect and she works in building preservation. She works in Tel-Aviv but spent a lot of time studying in the area so she took us to see a couple of churches one was Tabeja (pretty sure that's how it was spelled on the sign) the other was Keppenachum...

Ofer was surprised to hear that the girls enjoyed the day, but the truth is, all the children had a GREAT time (there were 9 in all!) As you can see they really got into the spirit of things :-)

She was able to tell us the related stories about Jesus and those places, one was the miracle of the fish, the other is where he was out on the water for 40 days for those who are better versed than I am :-). This was both fun and educational.

(right to left Danielle, Mika, Lia, Hagar, Lior, Michael & Gilad)

She also took us to a small water fall that non of us knew exists so there was some water fun after all.

(Right to left: Mika, Ma'ayan, Danielle & Anita in the back )

We ran into three guys who were fishing and Bar B Q'ing by the waterfall, mind you all of this was happening in the ...rain... quite surreal..

I think this was a cat fish, either way, it was too big for what they had in mind (namely grilling on their small portable BBQ) so after this pose the happy fish was released back to the water.

(Hagar, Gil'ad being held by my cousin and his dad Shaul and the "fisherman")

All in all a great day was had. We got home at about 8:00PM, Showers, and off to bed.

Excitement this week: My dad is in for a visit from the States, the girls are ecstatic. The washing machine broke down... I am bummed and a bit helpless :-( I am sure things will be better in a few hours. Next week is Shavuot, the girls only have 2 days of school (Sun & Mon) we are having family over for dinner Tuesday night, traditionally this is supposed to be a dairy meal. I hear that my sister & brother in law are not thrilled about those and feel a bit cheated (where is the beef you know) SO the menu is still up for grabs. Next week we are having a Turkey reunion on Wed. Everyone who was on the trip will get together at the sea of Galilee... Should be fun. I will update as things happen.

For now, thanks for checking in,

love,

Ronit

english/computer-club penguin

Dear anyone who is reading this blog,
whether 30 years have passed or rather 1 hour has passed since the blog was updated it is still fun to read what is written. Anyway if you want to know now what month and year it is it's May(the end of May) 2007. I'm Maya and I'm the daughter of Ronit(for those who don't know). Now , in the beggining I told you about how i was moved to a more advanced english class. And my mom was the teacher...Well a new teacher came to the school so my mom put me back in my regular class. The teacher is very nice. In other words, I don't have to update the blog once a week. Well, i read what my mom wrote and decided i should add some important things. For my birthday in January i got a laptop. I played on the computer much more because i was the only one who used the laptop and it was in my room. My cousin, told me about a game on a website called miniclip.com. So, i went and she showed me a game called club penguin. It's a virtual game where you interact with other people. Everybody see's everybody as penguins and on the game, we are penguins. If you pay mobey and become a member, you can get all sorts of things for you'r penguin. For instance, clothes, a bigger igloo(the house that penguins live in) and lots more. You make up a nickname for you'r penguin and that is what everyone will call you and tells you apart from other penguins. You can buy different colors for you'r penguins too. In short, this game is really fun. If any of you make a penguin you'll see how fun it really is. Well I am doing this at 10:45 at night my time so I'd better get to sleep.
have fun on cp (club penguin) and I hope I'll see you in the summer.
Maya

Here we are again

It's been forever... Things keep happening, and i mean to update but... Where do I begin... All is very well with us, the year is approaching it's end (school year that is ) Spring is here, the weather is great, and we are all pretty happy :-) let me re track a bit, Danielle spent 2 weeks in Chicago back in April, there was an opportunity since my mother was here, she went back to the US and Ofer was coming 2 weeks later so... Danielle flew back with my mother and returned with Ofer. This gave her 2 weeks in Chicago, to catch up with friends, see her old home and (we hoped) get some closure. She was having a hard time with the move, and we hoped this would help a bit. I think it did, she came back with a new attitude and seems to be (FINALLY) settling in.

A week after Danielle & Ofer arrived we all took a week long family vacation to Turkey. Those who know us, know that we used to take a family vacation to Mexico every year to escape the winter cold. Well, there was no need to escape since it never really got cold around here, but a family vacation is always a great thing :-) we went with MANY other people (about 30 in all) I was a bit concerned but it turned out quite well. Ofer's parents, his sister and family, her close childhood friend who I was with in the army (small world). another friend with her parents and their friends... Quite a group! Amazingly everyone got along, and even more so, all the kids got along very well... They travelled like a pact of wolves it was great. Here is a picture of some of them, can you find any of my girls :-)?

I have to tell you, Turkey is Beautiful! The scenery is breathtaking. We had a very good time even though the weather was NOT very cooperative. The hotel grounds were very nice but only one out of seven days was nice enough to spend by the pool. Never the less, we had a very good time, and I am sure we will be happy to go back there. (our new Mexico...)

Well, we are home now (have been for about a month) Ofer is back in Chicago and we are doing are usual daily thing. School, activities, life... Have to admit life is much more active here, and yet the nice weather makes everything easier to handle. We were supposed to go camping this weekend up north but the weather was strange and Lior did not feel very well so we will put it off for a bit. Last weekend we spent two days at the beach with my cousins. We were thinking of spending the night but were not prepared (sleeping bags and such) so we went home at about 11:00 PM and came back the next morning. The girls had a GREAT time we were with my cousins, just being out in the open for two days, eating whatever we prepared on the spot, was a great adventure. We all decided that this is such an easy thing to do, so inexpensive, and SO much fun that we will do it as often as possible. I hope we live up to this decision. We happen to live 5 minutes away from one of the most beautiful beaches in Israel, so we better take advantage!

There are really many more things that happened (as i am sure you can imagine) but I figure, you can't recap months of not updating... I will try to do a better job from now on :-0 Hope people still check in :-0)

Until next time, all our love,

Ronit

danielle/just for fun/chicago colder than cold

hello to all from Danielle you'll never guess were I am unless you've read the title!
well to all those who haven't read the title I'm in Chicago and boy is it cold!
well I think I should have seen this coming when I agreed to come.
but still there are good things like...not going to school and going to a sleepover party at one out of two best friend's house!
well got to go sorry the blog was so short...

love to all,
Danielle

A crazy friday night(Maya is writing this)

Friday nights usually means:dinner at the grandparents, for the Gliksman family.In Chicago we used to go to my mom's mom and her husband.In Israel we go to my dad's parents for dinner.In Chicago there were less people so it was quiter and, some might say,more fun.In Israel every body comes:of course, my dad's parents,aunts,uncles, and cousins.Plus, it is an apartment, and in Chicago it was a big house.So, of course, in Israel it is alot louder.More ppeople, smaller house=more noise.This last Friday, though, my boy cousins were alot louder than they usually are.Everything was chaotic with the kids.All the cousins that are girls are small, so we play with the boys.First of all, the boys started doing gross things out of the play-do.It's kept for the little kids but the boys played with it.In the end, there was a war of play-do.All the boys threw it at me and Danielle and Danielle threw it back at them.It was all chaos,but it was really fun.And that was just one of those crazy Fridays!

Maya's thursday ( a first-ever birthday thursday).

Last thursday I went to my great-uncle and great-aunt's house.They said that they wanted to have me sleep-over at their house and we could have two fun-days together.My greta-uncle's name is David and my great-aunt's name is Carmella.David came to pick me up on thursday after school.I was feeling a bit nervous about sleeping over but I told myself that I had already said yes and David had driven from Tel-aviv just to pick me up so it would be really rude.Plus, anyway, I thought it would be really fun there, without Danielle and Lior. I haven't been alone for a long time.Also the last time that I decided on the last minute I wasn't going and Lior went, it sounded like I had really missed out by not going.So I went as planned, first we went to the movie"Arthur and the Minimons" at Cinema City.The theater was like a palace!Everything was so big, and the seats were also very comfortable.For anyone who has not seen the movie, I would reccomend it as one of the best movies I have ever seen.After the movie we went to David's house tp pick up Carmella.The main reason that David and Carmella took me was because of my birthday which was aproximately 2 weeks ago.I turned 10.So then we went out for ice-cream and to buy me a birthday present.At first I was debating whether to get a stuffed animal or clothes.Once we got to the clothing store, though, I made up my mind that I wanted a stuffed animal.I didn't like any of the clothes there.I also thought that a stuffed animal wasmore special than clothes.I got a nice big, black teddy at toys R us.The teddy is a boy and his name id Coco.I had lot's of fun.I hope the same thing happens next year!

both of maya's birthday parties by maya

I had two birthday parties this weekend and I got a ton of presents.For my class birthday party on thursday(my real, actual birthday) about 50 people came.I had planned that we would play some games listen to some music and watch the movie "Grease".I wanted a DJ for the music.My mom has an old college friend whose son is a fifteen year old DJ.My mom asked him if he could do my birthday party and he said yes.My mom said that I had to come up with a song list and a game list for my party.I wanted some beatle songs,queen songs, and Abba.The games I wanted were:havila overet( i don't know how you say this game in english but you pass around a package and whenever the music stops you open a package and there are fun assignments you have to do),limbo(with the song limbo rocks), and heads up seven up. My mom has been baking alot since we got to israel so, no store bought cakes for me! I asked her to make me an orange cake and a chocolate cake without sprinkles.Kids were always going outside, and alot of boys ended up crying and getting hurt so we decided to start the movie at about:21:30. I brought my bean bag down for the movie and so did Danielle and Lior so not everyone was sitting on the couch.My mom and dad also got some chairs out so some kids sat on them too.most of the kids didn't really watch the movie though, there was alot of talking which didn't matter to anyone except whoever was listening and undrestood english because we saw it in english with subtitles in hebrew.Now, all this is about one of the parties.I had two parties.My second party was today, which is saturday. Now, for those in america this means"oh one more day to the weekend.YAY!" but for those in israel it means"NO!There is school tomorrow!".This second party was mainly for my family that didn't come to my first.We had nothing special planned but it was still alot of fun even without special things.The puny kids had a sort of club that Danielle was in too, and the older girls,me, Lia,Tom, and Stav played in our little "spys" group.Now, towards the end of the party something happened.It wasn't the best something that could have happened but it happened. Well I think this is long enough for my homework,
bye,
Maya