Tel Aviv Diary September 4-8, 2008 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

Tel Aviv Diary - September 4-8, 2008 - Karen Alkalay-Gut

September 4, 2008

Now wouldn't peace be nice? Real peace. So that when we go to visit the Golan we can do it the way we do now - just get in the car and drive. And maybe spin up to Beirut, The way my in-laws did on a motorcycles 80 years ago. For a lark. And not the way our cousin Gideon went for a walk with a girl and accidently crossed the border and got put in a Syrian prison for a few months in '48. - Of course none of the people in this area are big enough for this kind of move, but it is a beautiful thought.

Now that the olympics are over, the part I'm most interested is beginning, the paralympics. Since I'm involved in the Daniel Amichai Rowing center, it is rowing I'm most intro, and I'll be following the the Beijing paralympics rowing I'm most into. It is quite remarkable how much more challenging it is.

September 5, 2008

The sea is a five minute bike ride from our door. And although it is still hot in the daytime, the late afternoon is magic. Perhaps that's why Friday afternoon is becoming the national time for sport. Many of the people around the sea are doing different degrees of power walks, but some are just strolling, welcoming in the Sabbath with a relaxing view of the sunset. There are a few bikers, but most of them are, like us, mere amateurs. Not too many people are in the water even though the mediterranean is at its best now - like a bath. I haven't been in the water this summer but now I've got to get there, maybe even tomorrow.

Good thing we filled up on pasta this afternoon at Pappa's. Photos by Assaf to follow. I had thought the place would be full, but it was pretty quiet - just right for a post-dentist lunch.

September 6, 2008

Panic Ensemble performs on Monday night at Ozenbar, the club of Third Ear, on King George corner Sderot Ben Zion at 9.

We won't be there - we're going up north - more information as we get it.

How is Ezi doing? He's beginning to grow hair. Since hair in Hebrew is female, he began by naming them individually by women. Esmeralda, Josepha, Mira, Jill. But then they began to come in clusters, so he started calling them by dance groups.

September 7, 2008

Here's some news. Today I am a professor. You may congratulate me by email or cellphone because tomorrow we're going up north for aday or two.

Also I am running for city council on the "Ten Lichyot" ticket. This is an animal rights movement for the city. The focus at the moment is on neutering stray cats and returning them to their neighborhood. 300,000 cats who are residents of this city deserve a better fate than starvation or mutilation. There was a program that barely got off the ground before the funds were cut (and I've written about it in these pages somewhere) that was very promising. The cats on my street, for example, received the benefit of this program and are no longer killing each other for a scrap of food. One of the people to whom i mentioned this asked me if this means i care for animals more than humans. But it is precisely because I care for humans that I want to educate them about their responsibilities for their environment, and for the others.

I couldn't get into the paralympics site but I'd like to congratulate our Inbal Pezaro who won a silver metal today for 100 meter freestyle at the Paralympics.

September 8, 2008

Can't get the news about the olympics but greeetings from sunny Mannot. We just had a great dinner at Morgenfelds in the moshav of Liman and are getting ready to explore the Western Galilee. a little Rosh Hanikra, a little Monfort Castle, and I'll get back to you.

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