Pop ice and wool rats all day long...

Today the weather is really hot after a few days with slightly lower temperature. I am starting to understand how you avoid being outdoors during daytime if you don't have to, or if you don't have an ocean close by to cool off in. The showers are taken cold and you are continuously cooling off with cool drinks and pop ice and more. In the afternoon I took Goshen for a stroll down the valley below but we both felt that the short tour was enough at that hour. Back at the house I filled a shopping bag of Shepherd winter fur, which right now is the never-ending story. She is loosing it and even when she just have been brushed we hunt Shepherd wool rats on the floor all the time, or Yoram to be more precise. I realise that going over the floor once a day has to be enough if not to become crazy. During the winter Yoram have had a very nice black and white rug on the floor, which of course is magnetic to Shepherd wool. Today the brilliant idea popped up that the rug is pretty unnecessary during the summer season, so it will be rolled up somewhere.

Goshen gets skin problems during the summer season, and no wonder, being bred for Northern European climate! She is already itching and I have to figure something out, because it is killing me to watch her. They have previously taken her to a vet and he has given her some treatment, which I assume has been very subjective and focused on the symptoms instead of finding a more holistic approach. Not all Shepherds have these problems just because they live in this kind of climate, so there is also some other reason. Skin disorders are in my experience caused by something off-setting the balance of the immune system, either of psychosomatic origin, or in connection to the diet, and they are not any different on animals than humans. Vets are also not different from human MDs and they often keep a very conventional attitude, where cortisone and antibiotics solve just about everything. We will start by taking her to the sea one day for a swim since the salty water is healing for the skin. Next step will be to look over her diet. It might be that the vet has already eliminated allergy as a cause, but nevertheless there are numerous cases where a change in diet has solved this kind of problem. She might need some allergy resistant human grade dog food, and we can also give here sour milk which refreshes the blood. To soothe the skin there are some options. We can try applying some Aloe vera or giving and oatmeal bath, although taking a Shepherd through an oatmeal bath is quite a project. But what will you not do for your beloved friend? Then of course I am hoping that she will be happier here with us where she will get more activation... A happy dog is a healthy dog!

Well chosen words...

I stumbled over an excellent blog post by Yaacov Lozowick, on the loyalty oath law that was suggested by Yisrael Beiteinu, and I just have to share this with you all. To cite the end of his post:

"... no matter how childish the politicians-media-NGO activists are, the foreign reporters who eagerly take only part of the story and use it to damn Israel shouldn't be exonerated. They could tell the same story I've just told you, but scrupulously won't, ever."

Sweet kids and lovely animals

Goshen

Now I feel that I have written too much about politics in the last posts, so I need to balance that up with some very common things. We have been asked to take over Goshen full-time and we did not need any long discussion to accept it. The preconditions were that Yoram's ex will take her in when we are away or abroad and that was no problem. She has been quite neglected lately which is heart-breaking and coming to us will mean much more activation and long walks, which is exactly what she needs. Besides her needs, I also need some company and occupation, now when Yoram will be back to work after his test. He has been following a course to increase his competence in his area and we are working strategically to make him in top shape for the test!

Living with Yoram includes two boys of 4 and 8 years old and they are here about a few days in the week and every other weekend. Being 36 years old with no kids makes moving in together with two of those a dramatic change for me, and although I am ready to get my own, there is a difference in producing one yourself over many months compared to getting two half-grown ones over a night. However, these two are a couple of darlings brought up on loads of love and I was accepted from day one. Hardest thing is not to be able to communicate so much yet, but as soon as the ice is completely broken here will be a mishmash of Hebrew, English and body language and two boys that will exceed in English compared to many of their friends. Mixing cultures and languages is just so refreshing...

Naughty settlers and toothless authority

Many secular Israelis consider the ultra-orthodox haredim to be irritating elements that walk around as cartoon characters and tirelessly try to infuse everything and everyone in righteous halacha. What they should be more irritated and worried about is the religious settlers on the West Bank, who really are the Israeli version of troublemakers who come with the holy scriptures in one hand and a rock in the other.

They are systematically spreading on the West Bank, expanding their outposts, and although it is not allowed the actions against them are toothless and somewhat blasé. They attack Palestinians, as well as Israeli soldiers, and after the latest incident today, no one was arrested, which is completely unacceptable. The logistics makes the surveillance of the area complicated and Israeli police often arrives at a scene too late, while the Israeli Defence Forces are primarily posted to re-establish calm and not to arrest people. Another problem is that many of the outposts stretch into areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority, where Israeli police cannot be on patrol. Altogether, the West Bank is growing into a Wild West, where rioting youth are acting as they please.

I have never said that the Palestinians are innocent on their side and they have their own problems with Hamas cells trying to infiltrate the West Bank society to recruit youngsters to terrorism activity, while they also urge Palestinians to fight the Palestinian Authority like they would Israel, and also Palestinian youth are involved in riots, but two wrongs does not make one right. Law and order have to be re-implemented on the West Bank and the silk gloves have to be taken off.

The settlements threaten to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the implementation of the partition solution, which is essential for preserving Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state. Let's face it! There is not any Greater Israel visible in the glass ball and that is what we have to work with to create peace. Defending the settlements requires Israel to operate a complex system of access roads and roadblocks, which make Palestinians' lives more difficult and inflict serious financial harm on them.

So, next time you see a haredi trying to tell you something from the Torah, you can thank him for not taking his deed into physical action on the West Bank.

More lies from the duck pond...

I will return to Helle Kleins lead article one more time. It constitutes a great example for when someone makes a non-supported request coming from a loony sound like something the whole nation supports. Helle Klein mentions Avigdor Lieberman, the new foreign minister in Israel, who is the leader of the nationalist party Yisrael Beiteinu. She is then telling the reader that he is demanding all citizens to swear loyalty to Israel as a "Jewish, Zionist and democratic state", a suggestion which could have grave and existential consequences for Israeli Arabs.

So far so good. Avigdor Lieberman and his party did make progress in this last election. This is among other things a reaction to the last operation in Gaza and an overall call for security. However, it is a minority of the people here who think only with their flee-or-fight brain. Avigdor Lieberman is already tripping on his own stupidity over and over and will not last for long, and the role as foreign minister has unofficially been taken care of by the president Shimon Peres.

Helle Klein writes her article as if this idea of a new law has a great chance to be accepted and implemented, but that is very far from the truth. Truth is that today the ministerial legislative committee rejected this loyalty oath bill with great majority. Only Yisrael Beiteinu voted for.

Helle Klein also writes that there is a new law to be implemented that bans commemorations of the "Naqba" by Israeli Arabs and this is a pure lie. What was decided was that organisations that want to organise this kind of event, will not get governmental funding for it. The commemoration is not banned in itself and they will keep on getting funding for all other activities. It can of course be discussed if it is the right way to go, but let us at least keep to the truth...

Kosher swines...

A kite flying above the sunset...

Recent genetic studies, based on Y chromosome polymorphic markers, showed that Ashkenazi Jews are more closely related to other Jewish and Middle Eastern groups than to their host populations in Europe (Nebel et al., 2005). This would mean in common language that also the European Jews originate from the Middle East. This could be used as an argument for them belonging to Eretz Israel, but that is not where I am heading.

I went to the beach last evening with Yoram, to have a few beers and watch the sunset. We went down just South from Haifa and were hoping for some space, but of course it was packed. No wonder, going to an official part of the beach! It was quite windy and we did not go into the water, but enjoyed watching people, dogs, joggers and swimmers, while sipping on a cold beer.

In Sweden everything is so controlled and that brings neuroticism to everything and everyone living being. Take dogs as an example. In Sweden people are frantic about keeping dogs on the leash and dogs are not even allowed everywhere. When the poor animals are finally let loose once in a while, they are so socially deprived and fucked up that they create trouble with each other. Yesterday, dogs were enjoying the feeling of freedom at the beach in just the same way as people and I did not see even one argument. They met, greeted and parted in a very natural way. It reminded me a bit about Christiania, the freetown in Copenhagen, where all creatures are free to roam the surroundings.

What did not impress me as much is that the Israelis are lacking respect for this beautiful nature they have around them. They leave their garbage right on the spot where they sat and take for granted that someone else will collect it. I guess that someone will do that on this official beach, but what about the more remote parts, like where we were the other day? This behaviour is not different from any other Middle Eastern country, or Mediterranean for that matter. Had I been less educated in genetics, I might have argued about whether this is in the genes and that even the Ashkenazim did not clean that out during the Diaspora in Europe. However, I am afraid that they are not released from the responsibility that easily...

Returning to the Swedish duck pond

One more time I have to reflect over a statement made by a Swede on the Israel/Palestine conflict. Helle Klein is the head political editor for Aftonbladet, an independent Social Democratic daily newspaper in Sweden. Yesterday she changed the history, by revealing a great scoop. She was explaining the word "Naqba" by saying (free translation from Swedish):

"the large deportation of 700,000 Palestinians during the formation of the state of Israel"

No historian has ever claimed this. Not even the Palestinian ones. Even the most radical Middle East historians admit that between 80 and 90% of the Palestinian Arabs who fled the new-born Israel did it on their own initiative or encouraged by their Palestinian and Arab leaders. Truth is that most of the Palestinians were not deported by Israel but instead encouraged to stay and become citizens.

It is neither true that they fled upon the formation of the Israeli state. They fled as a consequence of the war that immediately broke out when the surrounding Arab countries decided to wipe Israel of the map. During the following 19 years, the surrounding Arab countries occupied what could have become a Palestinian state.

It is also worth mentioning that no Jews were allowed to flee from the Arab side. All civil Jews were put up for execution on the spot, in Jerusalem and what is now known as the West Bank. The Arab open declaration was to commit a genocide on the Jews and to eradicate the state of Israel. The other Arab countries expelled about 850,000 Jews and deprived them on all their belongings.

I know that I claimed in an earlier post that "resolving" history is not the solution to this conflict, but when someone uses this kind of severe lies, as Helle Klein, then I need to speak up. I neither deny that the Israelis truly were responsible for many horrible things during that process. I am just stunned by the poor and highly non-objective journalism which borders to propaganda. I wonder if she is deliberately lying or if she is plain ignorant, or maybe just stupid. No wonder so many people are ignorant and biased, when this is what they are fed with by the main Swedish news sources.

Helle Klein finishes the lead article by saying (free translation from Swedish):

"EU could push Israel more strongly, but in contrast to the attitude that is held by the democratically elected Hamas government, the Israeli extreme-right government is treated with silk gloves"

Clearly Helle Klein prefers a terrorising "government" that has grabbed power in a society with no other alternative than an already corrupt Fatah, and who promised the Gazans infrastructure, economy and growth, but instead only delivered rocket firing, oppression and martyrdom, and in the end war. And worst of all, Helle Klein compares Hamas to the EU, as if they are two equal democratic institutions. Is it possible that a journalist is this ignorant and is it possible that a journalist can deliberately lie that ruthlessly? I doubt either one, and that leaves only one more option...

Some animals you love and some you eat

I did one big mistake! I forgot to authorise my parents so they can access my Swedish bank account if something would happen, like if the digipass would break, which it of course did when I was supposed to access the internet bank for the first time since I arrived. And no, it was not only the battery. I have tried to change that! Not only this, but the telephone bank has also been deactivated since I have used the internet bank for so long, so the lady I talked to in the bank office could only say that there was nothing she could do. Luckily I am returning to Malmö for a few days in July and then I have to fix both a new digipass and authorisation for my parents. Until then, all I can do is to kindly ask my parents on my bare knees to pay my bills. What would I do without them..?

Yesterday we went for Shavu'ot dinner at Yorams mothers place. His sister also came with her husband and three kids. A traditional Shavu'ot dinner does not contain any meat products, but instead we had several dairy dishes, as well as a salmon dish, since fish is not really defined as meat. This is not a family that keeps kosher, but they still eat the traditional holiday meals the same way as we eat our specialities for christmas, easter and other highlights on the calendar. Yorams brother-in-law is Moroccan and the food made in this family is a fascinating mix of Ashkenazi, Sephardic and contemporary Israeli cuisine and we all ended up completely stuffed. I think I passed the test and I am now officially part of the family.

Yorams mum has a 1 year old dachshund cross-breed named Choco who is completely crazy and over-energetic. Although the discrepancies, she reminded me of Ichiban and I realised that I miss him a lot. I cannot wait to see him when I get back. This afternoon we are picking Goshen up from the other house, a female Shepherd of whom we have shared custody. Sneakers on and a 5 km power walk in the fields below. Beach '09 here I come!

Shalom Yam...

Almost the whole Israeli coast line from North to South comprises the most amazing beach. We went to a quiet and remote part in between Tel Aviv and Haifa, but closer to Haifa, and it is just great coming to a place where there are at least 50 metres in between every group of people, no large houses, perfect sand and just the big turquoise ocean. Anati joined me and Hadar and the girls had a wonderful time in the sun. I am so sorry that I am not showing any picture, since that was actually my plan, but I promise that from the next beach day.

The water is about 24 degrees now. Still cooling, but you can stay in as long as you please. The wind created playful waves and it brought up a strange feeling inside of me when I was thinking that from now on I will be close to this completely exquisite environment, which up until now has been associated with very temporary experiences on occasional holidays.

I covered myself in SPF 20 before I left home and we stayed on the beach for over three hours, but I did not burn at all, so my worried boyfriend can now relax. I have been in the sun for a few days already in Sweden, so the worst "first-sun-for-this-year-reaction" was already dealt with.

Tonight, HaShavu'ot dinner with mother-in-law and sister with family... Report tomorrow!

Only cold thing is the fridge

I have the privilege to jump in to an ulpan class here in Tivon, 5 minutes from home. The participants are mainly immigrant workers from the Philippines but also a few other people with different background. Only thing is that this group has been studying every Wednesday afternoon the whole spring semester, so my first lesson was not really basic level, but I just relaxed and went with the flow and since the teacher is a highly qualified Hebrew teacher I immediately felt the effectiveness in her methodology. I am in the state where I know quite many words and I start to know the alphabet, but since I have not had anyone to really practice with in Sweden, the flow with the language will first start from now. I could actually follow quite good when she taught by talking Hebrew constantly, but I have to practice the reading more and that is the real hard part. Hebrew is written only with consonants, just like Arabic, both being Semitic languages and that means more of a challenge. They have the niqqud system, which is dots and bars to annotate vowels after the consonants, but it takes a lot of practice to learn it... However, it is loads of fun and I am very motivated.

Tonight we went for my first aikido practice during summer season in Israel. I am sweating like a horse even when I practice in Sweden, so this was ridiculous, but I was surprised to discover that my shape was not as bad as I feared. I have not practised on a regular basis the last few months and it tends to make a huge difference, but I did well. Here it is no Sunday walk and every class ends with 10 minutes of jiu waza, which means free techniques, and we also change and do jiu waza with different partners. The two big fans are very nice right now, but in August they apparently feel like hot hair dryers blowing in your face. I guess my shape will be better than ever in a short while. Now I am laying naked by the window at 22.30 in the evening sipping an excellent local Belgian-type beer, with the mac on my lap blogging to you. Life is great!

Tomorrow I am going to the beach with Hadar... It is 24 degrees in the water already!

Bad girl writing untrue things...

Yoram corrected me this morning after having read my post. We DO have air-condition in the house, but not in the bedroom, but even if we had we would not use it while sleeping. However, we might cool down the living room during the hot and humid afternoons in August...

Oscar, is this an appropriate length for a post..?

Full schedule for the blueberry

Yesterday I went to Hagaparken in Stockholm with one of my dearest friends, Johan. We had a lovely lunch in the sun with a refreshing Champagne. I ate a delicious halibut and Johan had zander. We also exchanged some music and literature and had coffee. Could not have spent the day in a better way. Later on I met up with Lisa for a stroll in Gamla Stan and a short review of the last period of our lives before my departure. The evening I spent with Katina in her roof-top apartment, but we went to bed quite early since I had a long day ahead of me. The last day in Sweden pampered me nicely!

My plane ride was as smooth as can be. I took the bus from Stockholm to Arlanda Airport and checked in without any fuss. I had 7.5 kg overweight and had to pay for 3, which I accepted. No hustle with the security either. You could argue that it is ridiculous when the plane is half full, but on the other hand it is Luftfartsverket and not the airline that sets those rules.

In the gate I met the loveliest lady from Stockholm who looked slightly confused since it was a bit unclear on where we should enter. I told her that I had it under cover and we started talking while we waited. It turned out that she had reached the respectable age of 80 and she was heading to Israel to spend a week with her granddaughter with family. The lady spoke no English and her relatives had sent her off with a note written in English to show off at the different stations during the travel! It was refreshing to see and she is a good role model for other ladies (or people in general) in the same situation who wants to come and visit. No names mentioned...

They had boarded the lady down to row 30 and I had row 9 and since the plane was half empty I asked if the seats beside me were empty and they were so she sat down with me instead and we had wonderful conversations about life and love and everything. Couldn't have asked for a better travelling company. The passport control went smooth. The girl asked about my purpose and I said that I was going to stay with my Israeli boyfriend and she stamped me for three months. This time it will only be 1.5 months, but when I get back after our summer holiday in Sweden it is time to apply for something more permanent.

As I said before, we went to Zikhron Ya'akov to pick up wine and the main street was shut off for the Shavu'ot celebrations and it was full of people, although Shavu'ot is not really until Friday. Shavu'ot commemorates the anniversary of the day God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and the Israelites at Mount Sinai. Not that we will celebrate it in a much more religious way than Swedes celebrate Christmas, but there will be a family dinner on Thursday. No time to waste! Better get down in the lions den all at once.

We are sleeping under a sheet only now, since the night time temperature has also stabilised. It goes up towards 30 in daytime and stays well above 20 in the night-time but this is only the beginning. They are offering really cheap fans at an outlet and we will go and buy a couple. This house has no air-condition, but I am not such a big fan about that anyway. The air gets too dry and cold and you catch a cold in no-time. It is enough to use the air-condition in the car.

This afternoon I have my first Hebrew lesson, or Ulpan as they call it here. The guys I am going to join is about one semester ahead of me, so this is the big test to see what I have achieved on my own at home. I have looked at the Hebrew by different means since last summer, but the last few months it had to give in for my thesis. Now the Hebrew is my focus! I can tell that I have learned the Alphabet since I was here the last time. I cannot read, but I can at least recognise the letters, which is more than nothing...

Reunited with my man after 4 months...

I will write more about my last day in Sthlm and my flight down here, but now we just came home and I certainly have more important stuff to do than blogging tonight. We passed Zikhron Ya'akov on the way home and filled up the bottles with Tishbi wine and now Yoram is standing in the kitchen making Shakshouka. It is about 25 degrees in the evening. Life is great!

Middle-landing in a sunny Stockholm

It was not easy to close the suitcase this morning. I repacked it yesterday evening and sorted some stuff out to get it to work. There is a double zipper on it and when I tried to use both, one of them did not close properly, but instead separated, and then both me and my mum panicked for a short moment. It is a 400 SEK suitcase so I guess I cannot expect a too high quality, but still, please let me use it once... I succeeded to close it using only one zipper and then we put two belts around it to secure it. It weighs 5 kg too much, but I am hoping that they will see through that. I guess it depends on how fully booked the flight is. If I have to pay some extra, so be it...

I left my parents place in a cab at 5.30 in the morning. The cab driver was very friendly and talkative and since he saw that both me and my mum were very emotional when he picked me up, he asked where I was heading and for how long. I started telling him about it all, moving over how I met Yoram through the aikido and over to the Israel/Palestine conflict. He started out by referring to the story about Babel's tower where the people got different languages and was spread out over the world. Then he shared his opinion that people that are of different origin with different cultures and religions can never get along. When we turned around the last corner before the central station he said that Hitler was crazy but probably very close to the truth. You might think that this was a blond blue-eyed Swedish nazi jerk, but no. He was an immigrant, from Balkan somewhere, I think. He kindly carried my heavy suitcase up the stairs of the main entrance and finished off by saying that he would never want to live in a country like Israel, not even for a holiday, because it is way too dangerous. His basic attitude had nothing to do with any of the parties being more right or wrong or the normal stories you otherwise hear. He was simply convinced that these people cannot live together and there will never be any solution. It felt strange to leave him there in his whole context. A South-European nazi living in one of the most multi-cultural Scandinavian cities. He must be very discomforted living there.

As soon as I sat down on the train I felt that my body is about to develop something. All duties are over and now I only have to see to that I get all the way down to Israel and home go Tivon and then I can crash as much as I desire. My poor man will pick up a total wreck at the airport tomorrow...

Now I have carried the heavy suitcase four stories up to a friends huge apartment on the roof top in Gamla Stan and it was nice to relax for a while. The weather is great in Stockholm and I will suck up some Swedish summer by meeting up with a friend in Hagaparken for a nice stroll in the sun. It is after all the last day here for a while...

Thank you and good bye...

Today I left my apartment keys to my tenant and finished off with a last latte at my coffee bar down at the corner, together with my best friends, followed by a very emotional good bye. I do not have so much to say and feel very empty. Tonight I spend at my parents place where the atmosphere is anything but cheerful. Tomorrow morning I leave with the train to Stockholm where I will spend one day before I fly with the Sabra Express direct flight to Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning. I will see a few good friends in Stockholm tomorrow afternoon and spend the night at a friends place in Gamla Stan. I will maybe write a few lines tomorrow too...

Sky is crying when Jojo leaves

We had a very successful farewell picnic yesterday. We reached to grill the meat before dark grey clouds grew up and covered the sky. The rain was first merciful, but we soon realised that it would not stay that way, so we cleared one part of the bike shed and simply lifted the whole party in there. It was raining cats and dogs and there were floods under our feet, but we crawled up in the chairs and it was actually very cosy. We drank wine and a friend played guitar while the rain was playing on the roof of the shed. Even a couple I know that got their beautiful baby less than a week ago decided to come in spite of the weather and I was both flattered and impressed by that. I was above all happy to conclude that my following months will not include much of that kind of weather, possibly only the two weeks we will spend in Sweden.

I went for aikido this evening, which was great. I was supposed to get my yudansha passport and diploma, but my reminder sms never reached my dear Sensei, who left the things at home, but that means that I have to go for a last practice tomorrow, which I did not plan, but it does not hurt at all. I only have to compress the day differently than I had planned. It is nice when higher circumstances see to that you do the important things, like practice aikido, even though you are completely stressed out. It will inevitably make you feel better. The fresh air was as usual completely absent in the dojo, since the ventilation is very poor, and the last half hour we were pale as sheets, but I reminded myself how it will be to practice in 40 degrees under the late summer in Israel and then it felt much better.

My other boyfriend

Now I think the worst part of the sorting process is over. Wardrobe checked, bathroom checked, desk checked. I bring only the summer clothes this round and bring some other stuff for the fall and winter when I return to Sweden in the summer. Now I have a lot of non-clothes stuff I want to bring too that will take space in the suitcase...

Ichiban, my little Alpha male, is with me these days and he most certainly realises that his darling Jojo is soon about to go somewhere. He is sitting on the bed in the middle of the mess and looks at me with big watery eyes and it is completely heart-breaking, so I pack a bit, cuddle a bit, cry a bit, and back to pack a bit... I just want to give him all the necessary shots in express speed and pack him down in the bag and bring him. He would love the climate... Although I think that would make his real mum very sad.  

                                               

Time to dig for gold...

My small apartment starts to look like someone threw a bomb in there, to be a bit politically incorrect. I have cleaned out my desk, the bathroom and a few other storage furniture and lots of things went straight to the trash. Tomorrow the time has arrived for my wardrobe, where I also plan to remove the sentimentality goggles and leave a lot to charity. I was disrupted before lunch by a sweet friend of mine who came and surprised me with a Champagne breakfast to celebrate my degree. Pink Champagne, Truffle Brie, Gorgonzola Fiore, Jamon Serrano and Salami Fiasco. How I will survive without having these un-kosher delicacies on crawling distance from my home is an enigma, but my friend promised to bring both cheese and the refined piggy products when she comes for a visit. We drank the wine, laughed and had fun and even sipped on the single malt I got as a fare-well gift from the group at the university. Suddenly it was afternoon and we were pretty round under the feet. Time for a strong coffee and back to packing things. Tomorrow evening I will have some friends over for a picnic on my back yard, because believe it or not, the summer has arrived also to Sweden! One thing I am planning for this week is to have as much of Swedish new potatoes as possible, because compared to these small yellow marbles from heaven, boiled with care and butter on top, all "new potatoes" from Mediterranean countries can go and hide somewhere and feel completely inadequate and dull...

Master of Science in moving boxes

I don't remember if I said it before, but I have never felt my life accumulate as much as during the last period. Yesterday I ticked off one of the biggest accomplices of my life, my MSc graduation, and I am proud to say, with the top grade. The rest of the day I spent drinking wine and I woke up today with a mixed feeling of ecstasy and vacuum. But no time to waste, today I am starting with my attic storage to clear some old crap, to make place for newer crap. The rest of the week is framed in to a strict schedule for me to reach everything before I am leaving Monday morning. For some reason I think the procrastination will not have such a tight grip on me this week. Moment is getting closer! Tonight I am going for aikido to wake my body up again...

Time to get grilled!

When I started this blog, I said that I will not start to write seriously until I have arrived in Israel, or at least, not before I have defended my thesis. Being a huge fan of procrastination, the blog instantly became my greatest escape from the must-do's. Anyway, tomorrow at this time I will be a graduated MSc in biotechnology and today I am walking around with the demeanour of a greyhound, tummy pulled up and ready to go after the hare. So, at least today I will not procrastinate by any long blog post, but instead try to focus on my performance. I will get back to you tomorrow with a review...