Day 8

Went apartment hunting today. As with most overseas housing, quite small. Hard to find something furnished that includes both a stove and refrigerator. And they count the living room as a room. So if you want a two bedroom apartment, you need to ask to see a three bedroom. But the views of the Mediterranean Ocean are magnificent! Had a fantastic meal yesterday. However, learned that "Mediterranean Spring Chicken" is actually chick liver. Still, it was scrumptious..and I don't care for liver! Emily and I made homemade Christmas decorations. We plan to look for Christmas wrapping paper today..I actually forgot to pack something! Might be hard to find, I've heard. Contemplating going to Bethlehem on Christmas day. Going to go to Jerusalem tomorrow. Today we plan to go treasure hunting near a park here in Ashkelon where they discovered a new roman statue...after the storm with 100 mile wind gusts managed to make a cliff fall and expose a new archeological site. It's been relatively easy getting along here. Almost everyone speaks some English. And they don't seem to be annoyed by our inability to speak Hebrew. We're going to work on that. The hotel manager here has many, many connections. His best friend's wife is the principal of an elementary school here. On Sunday Emily and I will go check it out. Yet I dedicated four of our suitcases to educational materials in case I need / decide to home school. Will keep you all posted (so to speak )!

Day 1 & 2

We made it!!! Had to spend some time in "the crazy room" at the airport...a holding place for those with "suspect" behavior. Quite an entertaining experience!! Having first storms of season here. 60 - 70 mile hour wind gust. Trees down. Sand making sky brown. Quite wild! Staying in deluxe room. 300 square feet, two beds, 16 pieces of luggage, bath, chair, and big screen tv. Will need to find home for some sort of xmas tree. Santa will be visiting us in this room we discovered today. Things move at a slower pace here. We'll be extremely lucky to get apartment within 1 month. Food is great!!! Sleep still hard. Shelter alarm went off 5 times already because of wind storm....yet we were the only ones who actually went to the bomb shelter. Silly Americans! Hope all is well at home. For those in Portland....try to stay dry and don't float away with the record rain!