Let it snow

By Hagit Galatzer

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Winter has already came, photo by Efrat Gilad

As people who originated from a hot and sweaty country, we have a soft spot for snow. To us this is a magical white substance, falling gently in light flakes and covering everything in a majestic white blanket. Especially alluring are the mountain tops we see all around us, so we ignore the fact that snow also means bitter cold, and decide to go skiing. Since we ski a lot, at least once or twice every season, every ski trip requires searching and sorting through mountains of gear. read more

After the Holidays, finally

By Hagit Galatzer

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Hummus, photo by Dana Berenson

“After the holidays” is what procrastinators say in Israel when they finally run out of excuses. It is that time of year when people finally go back to work, school and reality and it arrives around mid-October, after a whole month of high holidays. For us, Israelis outside of Israel this time only arrives on January, after two intensive holiday seasons and quite a few extra pounds. But before we say “talk to me after the holidays” we have to brave the longest holiday of them all: winter break. There are three main options to tackle this 2-weeks disaster, a visit to the motherland, an all-inclusive vacation in a sunny destination or a “stay-cation” – where you get to stay home and have no vacation. Calorie wise, the most dangerous option out of the three is of course the family visit to Israel. read more

Festival of light bulbs

By Hagit Galatzer

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Seahawks house in Kirkland, photo by Tami Grayevsky

In an attempt to save the dignity of Hanukkah in the eyes of our kids, it has been branded as the “Festival of lights”. Yes, the holiday does include candles, but how much light can 8 candles really give? Ok, 9 including the Shamash. A short walk in the neighborhood at dusk reviles that the real holiday of lights is actually Christmas. While we are busy frying goodies and eating them for 8 days and 8 nights, our neighbors, nice, regular folks, lose control and throw all caution to the wind. Risking their life, they climb ladders and slippery roofs in order to decorate their house with strings of colorful tiny lights. These lights will shine in the darkness of the afternoon and through the dimness of the next day morning, for about a month, or at least after New Year eve. One has to wonder, who is the marketing genius that came up with this brilliant idea? read more

Spice it up

By Hagit Galatzer

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November is here and you can feel it in the air along with the cinnamon and spice fragrance bursting out of every corner Starbucks. Indeed nothing says fall like pumpkin flavored coffee. And fall here is the real deal, with color-changing trees, chilly winds and rain that goes on for a good season or two. This is not the flimsy and elusive Israeli fall which only truly exists in kindergarten stories. There they teach the kids about the Nachlieli bird, the Hatzav and the falling leaves while the sun is smiling outside causing a mild heat wave. The Hebrew word for fall is STAV which sounds a little like “Stab” and the Hebrew word for the first rain of the year (interestingly, there is no such word in English…) is YO-RE which also means “Shooter”, this may explain some of the recent fall activities they experience over there. read more

High Holidays

By Hagit Galatzer

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The Jewish holiday season is almost over and we can all breathe and relax a little from the temporary insanity that possessed us. It all starts with the all-important questions: “Who will we celebrate with?” and “Where???”

You would think that we left all this behind us, back in Israel, along with the pressure-cooker otherwise known as the Israeli family. No more guilt trips, taking turns with his\her family and all that stress. Finally we can celebrate in peace and quiet among best friends… read more

Summer in the Northwest

By Hagit Galatzer

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Photo by Ronen Engler

Among the changes we experience as Israelis living in America, like calmly driving (including yielding of our own device!) and waiting patiently for the elevator to empty before going in… we also started to talk about the weather, well, mainly to complain about it. In Israel the weather is pretty boring in the summer and it doesn’t take much to be a weather person in August: “It’s going to be really hot today”, and “it’s going to be even hotter tomorrow…” But in Seattle, the weather is a meteorologist wet dream. So the unusual hot summer we all complained about disappeared and went back to good old Washington weather – 50 shades of gray wetness. The weather people may say a cold front arrived from Alaska and caused the barometric pressure to drop and all that, but I will tell you it’s my fault. read more

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