Catching Up

Wow.  It has been over a month since I blogged and we've done a lot of stuff.  The last thing I blogged about was Halloween and since then, we've done more traveling around Israel and had a few holidays.  So here is my attempt at catching up.  I'm going to try a blog more frequently so check back in a few days for more updates.

Thanksgiving was great!  We spent it with Jen and Ben, our great friends in Tel Aviv, who had a party of 16 people that night and we left  - or at least started to leave - around 2:30.  The traffic was horrible!  Apparently everyone leaves Jerusalem on Thursdays before their weekend which starts essentially on Friday mid-day and it took an hour just to get out the city.  When we finally got there, Julia turned on her charm with all the guests and took care of herself for most of the night.  When we sat down to eat, she sat at a different table next to Matt the Marine who helped her with her dinner, etc.  Thomas did a good job at trying to break everything possible at his level and tried multiple times to stick his entire hand in the cheese dip on the coffee table.  Brian took on the job of following him around and keeping him out of trouble which made my night great but his night until Thomas fell asleep not very relaxing.  Our dinner was a traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, cranberries, pecan pie, etc.  It was fabulous and I ate too much as usual and was stuffed.  We were invited to a second Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night and this time got a babysitter.   Again we stuffed ourselves to the brim and had a great relaxing time.

Brian's birthday was the next weekend.  On Saturday, we jumped in the car and drove up to Hula Valley.  Hula Lake Park is a stopover for migrating birds going from Europe to Africa and back.  They come twice a year and blanket the area.  Jen and Ben joined us there and then had an early birthday dinner celebration at a restaurant in the area.  Here are awesome pictures that Jen took that day.

Odds and Ends

SADLY, I WROTE THIS A MONTH AGO AND NEVER PUBLISHED IT.  BETTER LATE THAT NEVER.......

This past 3 day weekend, the Gormans got out of town - at least for part of it.  Friday was Veteran's Day and so Brian was off work.  We went to Julia's swim lesson with her preschool in the morning and then took off for Ein Gedi after lunch.  The park is a little over an hour away.  You have to drive into the West Bank and then south along the Dead Sea.  You get back into green-line Israel and then get to the national park.  We got started later than we expected and didn't get there until a little before 3.  Unfortunately,  Julia fell asleep about 5 minutes before we got there.   Awesome.  I knew the hike to the first waterfall was about an hour round trip so I wasn't too worried about getting there in the later afternoon but I didn't realize that they closed the entrance at 3.  Since we got there slightly before 3 it wouldn't have been a problem, except that when I got out of the car to get Thomas from his car seat, I found him covered in .... poop.  It was everywhere - car seat, clothes, hands, face, etc.  It took me a while to get him cleaned up and I left Julia sleeping for another 10 minutes or so.  When we finally got to the entrance, the woman told me it was closed so what did I do?  I begged.  I wasn't proud of it, but after the drive, the poop, and waking up Julia, I didn't want to get back into the car and drive home.  Luckily, it didn't take much begging to get her to let us in the park since we were about 5 minutes late.  We had to promise to be back by closing - a promise we kept and even had some time to spare.  The hike was quick but so fun and we will definitely be back to spend some more time.  The ibex and hyrax were all over the place.  We had to keep Julia from trying to run up and pet them.  The waterfalls were beautiful and we'll be back to swim in the natural pools when it is warmer.

Saturday was a quiet day - we took a nice walk with Bob the dog and enjoyed the nice fall-like weather.  We had some friends over for dinner and Julia was so excited!  I think she just collapsed after they left from playing so much with their kids.

Sunday, we skipped church and drove up to the Sea of Galilee.  We stopped off and had lunch in Tiberias on the water and then we continued on to Capernaum.  I tried to explain the historic significance to Julia - this is where St. Peter lived and Jesus came to visit here, etc.  I should have been prepared but I wasn't ready for the whole list of questions:

"I don't see Jesus.  Where is he?"
          "He's was here a long time ago."

"Where is he now?"     Uh oh.... here we go.....
          "He's in Heaven."

"I want to go to Heaven."
          "We'll go but it won't be for a very long time."

"Where's Heaven?"     Oh Boy.....
          "With God"       Now I'm looking at Brian for help.......

"How do you get there?"
          "God lifts you up to be with him."  I am definitely avoiding the whole death/dying topic for now.



Thank God that was then end.  How'd I do?   For a 3 year old, I think the answers were ok and she didn't ask for anymore explanation.

We also made it to the Mount of Beatitudes which overlooks the Sea of Galilee and then headed home.
Before we left, we stopped for a treat.  Julia got ice cream and Brian and I both got a drink of fresh OJ.  Thomas grabbed an orange from the counter that he immediately put in his month - peel and all so that was his treat.  He is beginning to communicate more and show that he understands more.  He now wants whatever Julia has and so the orange wasn't sufficient and he wanted her ice cream the whole time she was eating it.

Ok.  I am procrastinating from studying Hebrew - and I have a test to hand into my teacher.  It's time to hit the books while Thomas is napping.

Halloween

I miss the fall in DC quite a bit.  I love everything about fall - the smell, the cool air after a hot summer, the colors of all the trees as they change and I love Halloween on Capitol Hill.  For those who don't live there, we have "Hilloween" which is a great big party for families next to Eastern Market.  Everyone gets dressed up and it is a blast.  It's usually a few days before Halloween so everyone can dress up twice - once for Hilloween and then again on the real thing - Halloween.

Julia has been obsessed with Cinderella so that's what I thought she'd like to be for Halloween.  When I told her that her friend Ainsley back in DC was going to be Snow White, she immediately said "I want to be Snow White too!"  Too bad - Cinderella was already on her way.  Apparently, Ainsley did the same thing.  Maybe next year, we'll just swap costumes if they still fit.  Clearly Tommy didn't care what he was so my rationale in picking something was to pick something that was clearly identifiable in pictures - a tiger.  Unfortunately, the tiger costume arrived 2 days too late so we borrowed a costume and Thomas was once again, a chicken. 

Some friends of ours live in Tel Aviv and they invited us up to the Halloween festivities there.  It is a much bigger post and they do "trunk or treat" in conjunction with the American International School.  After inviting the whole school, and all the families from the embassy (expats and foreign nationals) there were 800 official Halloween bags sold.  The money from the Halloween bags goes towards all the candy that was purchased to hand out - over $7000!!  "Trunk or treat" was done in a neighborhood just north of Tel Aviv where a lot of families live.  They chose a street and had cars parked and decorated for maybe half a mile.  Brian and our friend, Ben, stayed at the car and handed out candy while Julia, Jen, Thomas and I went "trunk or treating".  Thomas never actually put his chicken costume on since he fell asleep pretty quickly.  Julia did a good job at walking the whole time.  When we finally got back into the car to go back to Jen and Ben's place for pizza - she was asleep in 5 minutes.

Julia, Ben, Me and Brian in front of the bat car for "trunk or treat"

Julia and Jen

Ben and Julia

On Halloween, the consulate had a big party.  There was a costume contest, trick or treating in one of the buildings, carnival games and even a haunted house.  We chose not to do the haunted house and just stuck with everything else.  We all had a great time.  Thomas finally got a chance to wear his borrowed costume. Last year, our friend who wore it won cutest costume.  I thought maybe we had a chance but he was beaten out by a baby dressed as Spock.  Maybe next year.

Julia with her friends, Ingrid and Elliot

Happy Halloween!

Daddy's Back!

Brian got back home last night.   Yeah!  Julia insisted that he come and give her a kiss when he got it, which he did.  She woke up briefly but fell back to sleep quickly.  So what did we do while he was gone?

Last Thursday, we went to the zoo after Thomas woke up from his morning nap.  We met our friend Sara and her two kids there but we got there later than expected.  We ate our picnic lunch as soon as we got there and then went to the aquarium.  At some point after that, Julia had an accident in the stroller.  I was prepared for that.  I should always have something but I was so hurried that morning to meet Sara, that I didn't think about it.  I had an extra pair of "big girl panties" but no pants.  So....... we went Israeli style.  Julia played in her shirt and underwear for the rest of the trip.  I tried to keep her in the stroller for most of the trip but when we got to the super duper big playground, it was a lost cause.  I call it "Israeli style" because I find that Israelis are very relaxed about kids.  I never ask if a restaurant is "kid-friendly" because they all are.  It is not uncommon for kids to go potty at the park off in the corner.  You see it everywhere.  I still prefer to try and find a bathroom for Julia but when we are stuck and there's no place else to go, a patch of grass (or dirt) works for us.  I was uncomfortable with Julia running around without any pants on but Sara told me to go ahead and that no one would care.  She was right.  No one seemed to care at all and I finally relaxed about it.

Sunday, was the olive harvest on the Mount of Olives.  The Lutheran World Federation has an olive grove and the olives are eventually pressed for olive oil.  The proceeds go to Augusta Victoria Hospital which is also on the Mount of Olives.  I heard the money goes to help treat Palestinian pediatric oncology patients.  Bob had a vet appointment so Julia went with our friends after church and I met them up at the olive harvest after dropping off Bob and letting Tommy nap a little bit.  It is very dusty and Julia was covered in dirt.  She like to sit in the dirt as if it were sand and make a "house".  She got hit on the head with a few falling olives (see pic below) but had fun anyway.

Ok.  It's time a study a little Hebrew.  I tend to study only before class but now things are really starting to pile up and I'm not learning all the vocab as quickly as I need to.  I need to be better.

Bye!

Random thoughts

Brian leaves today for a week trip to Atlanta.  I'm sorry that I'm missing such a fun wedding!  Congratulations Josh and Colleen!  The trip would be too much for all 4 Gormans although it would be so fun to see Nana and Pop!  We will survive without Dad for the week that he is gone.  I'll be holding down the fort with the help of Armi who will come and give me a break from the kids a few times this week.

Someone told me about the Jerusalem Expat Network or JEN for short.  They meet monthly and then have different smaller groups that get together for different things.  There is a lunch group that tries different restaurants, a book group, a majong group, a bridge group, a toddler playgroup, etc.  I just missed the October meeting so I'll show up for the November meeting and see if I can get involved in a few groups.

Julia has a break from school because of Sukkot for 3 days.  I'm planning a visit to the zoo, ice cream making, and a few play dates with  friends.   We also have soccer practice again this Friday and our coach is going to miss it!  Luckily another dad is willing to pitch in and takeover this week.   I'm also going to work with my neighbor tomorrow to see how his obgyn office runs and hopefully there is a chance to start working with him in the near future.  I'm getting all my papers in order in hopes that something part time will come through.  I'll let you know!

That's it for now.  Keep in touch!

Amman and Petra

Last weekend, Uncle Sean was visiting the Amman Gormans so the Jerusalem Gormans tried their first border crossing.  Although there was some concern before going about visas, etc, we got across without any difficulty and Uncle Bart was waiting there to show us back to Amman.  The drive to the border crossing is about 40 minutes and to cross the border after stopping here and there and getting this stamped and that stamped, took about 40 minutes on the Israeli side and then 20 minutes on the Jordanian side.  The drive to Amman was about 45 minutes.  In all, it took probably 3 hours to get to Bart and Donna's house but if we were able to do it without stopping so much it probably would take about 1 1/2 hours.  We stayed with Bart and Donna and the rest of the Amman clan and so did Uncle Sean.  They have a huge house!  Amazingly, with 5 adults and 6 kids, we didn't kill each other.  Sure - there were a few war wounds in the end but all children survived and more importantly, so did I.  We spent Friday and Sunday afternoon at the embassy pool.  There is a nice playground there and a great snack bar where the kids can find anything they want to eat.  Julia had a blast in the pool with her dad and uncles.

On Saturday, we all got up and got in the car to drive to Petra.  It's about a 2 1/2 -3 hour car ride from Amman.  Once there, you walk a little ways until you get to the canyons where red rock cliffs rise above you.  It was warm outside but cool for a lot of the walk while we were in the shadows of the cliffs.  Here are a few pictures but none of them can do it justice.  There are a lot more pictures at www.dropshots.com/julialivgorman  When you come to visit us, please consider allowing extra time for a side trip to Petra.  If you come as far as Jerusalem, it would be a shame to miss this amazing place.

I hope these pictures entice you to come visit!  Email me anytime - reservations are open at Hotel Gorman in Jerusalem.  

Limes and Lions

The fruit available here is very seasonal.  It's probably how it should be in the US but I feel like there I can get almost any fruit I need almost anytime of the year with a few exceptions.  Here, the season of limes is really August and the early part of September.  After the early part of September, you just can't find them and you are stuck with the fake lime juice for cooking.  I'm not a big margarita drinker but I do love a good lime with my Corona and occasionally you need lime juice for cooking so I've been planning on getting limes to juice and freeze.  I've put it off until the last few weeks when I've purchased a bunch of "limes".  I put that in quotes because multiple times I've gotten home and found out that the "limes" I've purchased are orange inside.  The second time I did it, I was sure they were limes.  They were clearly different than the green oranges that they were sitting next to in the grocery store.  Of course, I'm sure that the store labeled them but since I still can't read Hebrew, I'm lost.  I bought a bunch and unfortunately they were oranges once again.  I've been looking for limes ever since and haven't been able to find them.  Finally, someone said they saw them in a market in East Jerusalem - across town in the Arab section.  I haven't driven over there and so it was a little intimidating to cross town in the car but I got directions and was successful in making my way to Wadi Joz.  I found the grocery store but NO LIMES!  The store clerk spoke great English and told me that I'm too late for limes.  How disappointing!  On my way home, I decided to drive to the Shuk.  Obviously I've been there before but I've never driven and parked there.  It's crowded but last time I walked there I had seen some parking lots so my adventurous self decided to try and park near the Shuk.  Again - successful!  I got in - and eventually out - without scraping someone's car or my own.  The most exciting part of that trip was that I found limes!  I wasn't even looking for them but I went into a vegetable stand and there were limes!  There weren't many and I held one up to the clerk - lime?  He nodded and I smelled one and it smelled like one too.  I got about 40 limes and brought them home.  I spent about 15 minutes cutting and juicing the limes.  About one ice cube of lime juice is equal to one lime.

Today is Rosh Hashanah.  Brian has a four day weekend and things are shut down in most of Jerusalem.  I haven't ventured out into East Jerusalem but I assume that things are open over there.  After a lazy morning, we all went to Safari Israel www.safari.co.il.  When you arrive, you drive into a big park with ostriches, rhinos, hippos, zebras, and tons of birds and animals I haven't seen before.  There aren't fences, etc and the animals are not too far from the road so you see them very well.  Some are walking up to the cars and it reminded me of Yellowstone with buffalo walking across the road and blocking traffic.  The same thing happened to us with an ostrich.  The park is obviously not nearly as big as Yellowstone.  It took us about a half hour to slowly drive through the park.  It made me wonder whether or not our USAA insurance would cover the car if an animal charged at us.  We would probably have bigger things to worry about if that happened.  There are signs all over in Hebrew/Arabic/English saying stay inside your vehicles, don't feed the animals, etc but we saw numerous dumb people with their windows down feeding carrots to the zebras and other animals.   There was an area as well with lions that was somewhat separated from the rest of the park and we could drive through that as well.  It was impressive.  In the middle of the park, there was an area to park and get out to walk through a typical zoo.   Our whole trip took us a little over 2 hours.  We got there at the end of the day so it was closing as we left but it was a perfect amount of time.

The kids are in bed now and I'm procrastinating on doing some obgyn questions that I have to do to maintain my certification.  They are due by tomorrow at 5pm CST.  uugh!  Ok .  It's time to get back to work.  Tomorrow Brian and I are getting a babysitter and we are going to the Israeli museum for a few hours in the morning.  I'll write more after that.  Shanah Tovah to all my Jewish friends celebrating Rosh Hashanah.

Soccer Practice

It was really cute.  I have to say this is one of the things that I love about being a parent - watching Julia play with friends and do new activities.  Melissa, a friend of mine with 5 kids, set up soccer teams for the kids at the consulate.  Julia is on the red team and her coach is her very own daddy.  The red team met for the first time yesterday.  Julia was so excited.  She woke up yesterday morning and decided she wasn't going to school because today was soccer.  I had to explain the order of things - school, nap, snack, soccer.  In the end, we had to skip the snack because she was so tired and I had to wake her up at 4:30 to get to soccer by 5.  Oh - and by the way - having a car is AWESOME.  I love being able to drive ourselves places and not have to rely on friends, etc.

Melissa had a great idea - 15 minutes of instruction/practice and then the red team can play the orange with the green team cheering and then they switch up.  It didn't exactly happen that way but everyone had fun and that was the important thing.   When we got to practice, Julia practiced kicking the ball with everyone else until she saw her dad.  There was a bake sale that morning and I had asked Brian to pick up something for us for dessert (US meaning he and I).  Unfortunately, Julia saw what he picked out and decided she wanted food NOW.  She proceeded to have a meltdown until another mom went and found crackers.  Practice then consisted of cracker eating.

After a little snack, she was back to soccer.  I was impressed at how much instruction team red got from coach.  They actually listened and followed instructions.  The hardest part was getting the concept of no hands but after a while, they would reach for the ball and then drop it quickly after remembering they couldn't use their hands.

Doesn't look like he is actually running a drill?  Good job coach! 

There was a lot of cracker eating among the team during practice.

Notice the orange team sending in a scout! 

It was a great end to the week.  Julia thinks her dad is a great coach.  We'll see how things go next time - practice is every other week in the consulate gardens.

GO RED TEAM!!!!!

As a little extra note, it is a little cool and rainy here in Jerusalem.  I LOVE IT!!!  Is it possible to get tired of warm sunny days?  I think it might be.  I'm in sweat pants and there is a little chill out.  It didn't rain much but Julia got to go out on the balcony and use her umbrella.  I hear that driving after the first rain is not fun because of all the oil on the road that has built up makes the roads slick.   The sun is poking out and I'm sure it will be warm and sunny later today but right now I'm enjoying a change in weather.  

Julia's trip to the farm

Julia's school goes monthly to a farm that is about 15 minutes away from our house.  There is a kibbutz and a hotel and spa along with this farm all on one big piece of land.  The farm is an ecology center that runs summer camps and educational pieces for schools like Julia's preschool.  You can check out the farm on the website www.krr.co.il   Julia and Thomas had to wake up early today so that we could meet her teachers at her school at 7 and follow them to the farm.  It wasn't too hard to do and now I'm sure I could get there by myself next month (or maybe earlier for a massage!).  Julia loved it!  There were goats, chickens, sheep, ducks, turtles, rabbits, mice, etc for her to watch and feed.  She was a little scared of the chickens freely running around but loved the rest.  I stayed for about 20 minutes as more parents and kids arrived.  Next time I'll bring my camera and take pictures.  I left her there with her backpack and car seat. Her class stayed at the farm for a few hours and then piled all the kids and their car seats into a minibus and drove them back to school.  Julia will go there throughout the year and see how the farm changes during the seasons as well as other ecological lessons such as recycling and composting.  It sounds awesome.  

Mount of Olives

I really should start reading the Bible. I'm here in the center of Christianity and I'm living so close to where significant Biblical events took place but I couldn't really tell you what they are or where they occurred. In our attempt to explore the city and learn more about these places, Brian and I went on a tour last Saturday of the Mount of Olives. I'll try to remember as many details as possible but you may still need to refer to your Bible.

The Mount of Olives is a really big hill - I wouldn't say mountain. It's about 2 miles long and fairly narrow. If you stand on the western edge, you look down over Jerusalem and specifically the Old City with a great view of the Dome of the Rock.

This is where we started our tour. The Mount of Olives is obviously a very religious location for the Jews and Muslims as well as Christians. There is a very old Jewish cemetery dating back thousands of years. Zechariah's tomb is said to be there but we didn't visit it.

The first church we visited is called Pater Noster because it is where Jesus had the Sermon on the Mount and taught the disciples the Lord's Prayer. Currently the church is controlled by French nuns. When you enter, the walls all have the Lord's Prayer written in hundreds of languages - dead and alive.

Close to this church is a mosque that used to be a church (see picture below) and supposedly has a footprint of Jesus - just one foot, not two. I'd love to be a believer of everything but I have to tell you that I could hardly see a footprint in the stone. And if it is a footprint, I have to think that it is probably some random guys footprint that thousands of visitors come and see. I'm not convinced but I'll let the other visitors think it's Jesus's footprint.

There were great views of Jerusalem often during our walk down the Mount. Here are some more views.

We went to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount.  It is full of olive trees whose roots date back to the time of Jesus.   The garden, according to the Bible, is where Jesus and his disciples prayed the night before his crucifixion.  There is a beautiful church there called the Church of All Nations.    It was built in the early 1900s with funds from many different countries and is now cared for by the Franciscans.

Next to this church is the Tomb of the Virgin Mary (according to some Eastern christian religions).  The other location where Christians believe she is buried is in Ephesus, Turkey.  You walk in the building and then down several steps.  It is dark with tons of oil lamps hanging from the ceilings.  There was a long line to get up close to the tomb which we didn't have time to stand in so I just got a bird's eye view by standing on a bench.

During the tour, we descended the Mount of Olives and walked into the Old City.  Here is a view of the Mount just before entering the Old City.

We had lunch in the Old City before going home.  It was about a 3 hour tour in total.  Habib who works for the consulate was an excellent tour guide.  He was quoting scripture during the entire tour and definitely made me feel like I needed to study the Bible a little more.