Investments

I like the kind of questions that make me stop me in my tracks. The kind that get down under my skin and really make me think, forcing me to repeatedly revisit it.

April has been nothing short of a whirlwind, with two fantastic weeks of back to back visitors. First we had the honor of hosting Andrew's brother and wife, who then went on from here to Greece. Two days after I headed back to the airport to scoop up three of Andrew's high school/middle school/elementary school (IDK these guys have been friends forever) buddies, who we had a blast running around Israel with.

Andrew's friend count of visitors: 5

Kait: 0

(not including family)

Where ma' girls at?

Since the dust settled this past Monday and the boys went on to their next connections - including Andrew who had a work trip - the apartment has been eerily quiet. Too quiet. So quiet that I made a point to hardly be in it at all, jumping from working in coffee shops to dog walking to visiting new babies to the gym, etc.

But it was the quietness and loneliness of this week that made me revisit the question that one of Andrew's friends asked me last week - What would I even be doing with my time in Israel if I didn't have an interest in fitness.

The question honestly left me without an answer, and my response at the time was to laugh and shrug, admitting that I had never even thought about that.

Think about it though. Think of the most prominent interest/passion that you have in your life, whatever you are most invested in and love, and then pretend you actually don't like it at all. Wipe it off the map. What do you think your fall back would be?

I'm still scrapping my brain. I would say my runner up is writing - but how do you make friends through writing? Attend slam poetry contests? Maybe a local writers workshop hosted in Hebrew?

Perhaps I would get heavily invested in dogs. I mean I already am - and genuinely, heavily miss being a dog mom every single day. I've always had in the back of my mind to volunteer at one of the local shelters - and have even looked up courses as to how you can become a dog trainer. Dogs are probably my second passion tied with writing.

I don't know why, but the question shook me and simultaneously made me step back and really appreciate what this passion has done for me - actually for both of us as a couple - in regards to the life that we have built here in TLV.

Outside of the fact that fitness-related activities take up a lot of my time and are slowly but surely intertwining with my career, it's also how we have made roughly half of our friendships in Tel Aviv. So to imagine removing that entire portion of my life actually makes me wince a little.

It's an odd thought to have, but I found it to be an equally productive brainstorming session. At any moment passions/loves/interests can quickly be extracted from our lives, and perhaps it's smart to know what you can fall back on when it comes to dedicating your time and energy.

Just felt the need to share, and let the general realm of health and fitness know that I'm appreciative of it. On that note - I'm off to swim. Have a great weekend!

Cheers - 

Kait

2017

Oh hey - Happy 2017, and Happy Friday - double happiness!

Sorry I went MIA there for awhile, we were lucky enough to get two wonderful visitors out here for a week over New Years, and there was absolutely no time for blogging.

Which is how adventure trips should be, right?  My little sister and her boyfriend, Bri and Jase, arrived here Tuesday night (the 27th) and it was basically non-stop adventure until they left the morning of the 4th.

Non-stop as in, any down time was basically used to eat or nap.  We did get one game of Scrabble in.

I won't give you a detailed seven day recap because that's excessive and this would turn into a 30 minute read, but I do want to cover the general trip, some favorites, and some roadblocks we hit.

The week basically looked like this:

Drove south (Eilat, Israel) and stayed Wednesday night on the Red Sea, crossed the border to Jordan first thing the next morning. Drove North to Petra, explored Petra Thursday afternoon.  Attended Petra at night, stayed at a Bedouin Camp and nearly froze to death.  Back to Petra Friday, then headed north after lunch. Stayed on the Jordan side of the Dead Sea Friday night (thanks for using your Chase points Bri), floated in the saltiness Saturday morning.  Crossed back over the border Saturday afternoon, stopped in Jericho and Jerusalem before heading back to a New Years Eve in Tel Aviv Saturday Night.  New Years Day in Jerusalem, failed to cross the border into Bethlehem due to a very long line.  Monday we headed to Northern Israel, saw Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and a winery.  Tuesday we stayed local and explored Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

*Heavy Exhale*

Note: Petra was an amazing life experience that everyone should have on their bucket list if they ever wander to the Middle East.  Jordan in general felt very different than Israel, and I'm so glad we got to see so much of the country.  Petra is MASSIVE and you could easily spend two days there and not get bored.

The Monastery, Petra

Another Note:  Crossing the borders (both ways) is not necessarily easy and took roughly 90 minutes both times.

Roadblock:  The credit card machine wasn't working the day we got to Petra... and sadly we didn't have roughly $400 in cash handy for the four of us to get in.  We spent a few hours running around trying different ATM's until we finally solved the problem - and actually ended up paying a lot less by purchasing a two-day pass and proving that we were staying the night in Jordan.... coming out to about $60/person, plus $15 for Petra at night.

Favorite: We learned at the Bedouin Camp we stayed at (while very cold at night, awesome experience, highly recommend) that a guide could lead us on a hike into the "back door" of Petra - allowing us to start at the biggest structure, the Monastery - instead of ending there.  So for a few Jordanian Dinars we were thrown into a hilarious-probably-illegal four-wheel drive vehicle, driven to God-knows-where, and dropped off in the middle of breathtaking mountains.  A quiet, knowledgeable guide then led us on a semi-challenging hike that was absolutely stunning and made me wonder why more people don't visit Jordan.

Overall, it was fabulous to be able to spend time with family the past week, because I won't lie it didn't *fully* feel like Christmas here, with highs around 60 and zero decor around the city of Tel Aviv.  I'm so glad the trip was able to happen.

Dead Sea

To wrap this thing up: it's 2017, and I'm excited to see what the new year has to bring.  People have been sh*tting on 2016 a ton, and I won't lie it won't go down as my favorite year for an array of reasons. But it's in the past, and that's something we don't dwell on.  If nothing else, it's only motivated me to make 2017 even better; more positive, healthy, and cognizant of how I'm spending my time and energy.

Have a great weekend my friends.  Cheers - 

Kait

Four

Today is our official four week mark of being in country.  Blows my mind, it's absolutely flown by and been a blur.  Realizing that today was indeed 28 days, I decided to pause for a moment and do a little bit of general reflecting, which I shall divide into two categories.  I realize these lists might come off as somewhat superficial, but don't lie to yourself you would have some sadness about moving somewhere without Targets too.

Things that don't really bother me that I thought would:

1. Lack of my familiar stores.  I basically lived NEXT to Target back in Baltimore, and made several quick runs there a week since they literally have everything.  So Target, followed closely by my favorite grocery stores such as Trader Joe's, Whole Foods - I really thought I would have separation anxiety.  Don't get me wrong, I miss them... but there are more options here than I realized, and it forces me to explore the smaller shops that I wouldn't necessarily go into if I had a big Target-like store out here, close by.

2. Making friends.  My past two moves the process of making friends semi-consistently broke me down into tears; I HATE the slow-moving process of it, I'm just not very good at it.  I still don't love it, but have learned to be more patient with it, and I think I'm a little better at it the third time around.

Friends at the beach last week :)

3.  Lack of a car.  There have been times when I wish I had one, sure.  But walking around the city has taught me a TON, forced me to be more active, and in general probably gotten me more comfortable, more quickly.  Our car is being shipped over here - eventually - but we most likely won't see it until mid-November at the earliest.

4.  Shabbat.  When I say I thought it would bother me, I don't mean the religious practice itself, I mean the fact that roughly 75% of the city shuts down from sun down on Friday to sun down on Saturday - a large chunk of our weekend.  I thought that would really limit us in regards to making social plans and outings, but so far we've found way more options of things to do/ways to be creative than expected; and I've actually kind of come to love the slowness and quietness of Shabbat.

Things that kind of bother me that I didn't realize would:

(let's define the word bother super mildly, these things aren't ruining my day, more so I'm just surprised that I even noticed them)

1. The cats.  Soooooo many stray cats.  Now don't get all up in arms, I'm not like a cat HATER (well some of them really piss me off because they hiss at Kai and get all aggressive with her and she's like what I just want to be your friend!?) but there is always cat food scattered everywhereeeee. Which is cool right, because there's this crazy organized effort throughout the city to take care of all the stray cats, but not so cool when your dog is obsessively hunting down the cat food, occasionally eating it, and then getting awful gas.

This guy guards the gate to our apartment, I've named him Kelly

2. A lack of fall.  I was well aware that there wasn't going to be a 'fall' out here in the sense that the leaves aren't going to change, and it's not going to get cooler until closer to November.  But I think even more than the temperature change, I miss the celebration of fall, and all things pumpkin.  And I'm not going to lie I did this today:

Secret Tel Aviv is an awesome Facebook group where you can pretty much find out about anything

3. LaCroix.  LOL SO BASIC, I know, but I miss it.  There are a few sparkling water options in large bottles, but minimal flavors, and DAMN I just miss grabbing an ice cold can of LaCroix and crushing it when I'm thirsty.

4. The time change.  I want to cheviot this with, I actually kind of like and dislike our time zone difference from the U.S. - so this could have made both lists.  Mornings are nice because they are super quiet, my phone doesn't typically light up with any alerts (unless it's another Israel-resident) until late afternoon.  I get a lot done, and can kind of be disconnected when I choose to be.

However, I am big on keeping in touch with people, and doing it well.  So when my Baltimorians start waking up around 2 pm, Chicago around 3 pm, and Colorado around 4 pm, it's sometimes waves of texts/facetimes/snapchats all at once.  And evening for me is typically workout time, dinner time, and then Andrew time, so I can't always be on my phone a ton, depending.  Which is where I've found frustration that I wasn't anticipating.

I'm not saying this at all to discourage anyone from reaching out to me - I love hearing from everyone, and being thought of.  

So there they are, my four-week thoughts wrapped up in two lists.  I hope they aren't read as me sitting here complaining, I just enjoying sharing the randomness of some of it, and wouldn't be surprised if I re-read this six months from now and laugh at myself.

Enjoy your Friday Eve my friends, I'm off to the dog park with hopes of avoiding all cat food along the way.

Cheers - 

Kait