Hello friends and family! This is Uri writing. Yes, this is not a mistake. I am using a voice recognition software that is called dragon.
It allows me to talk to the computer and the computer is supposed to understand what I'm talking and write it down. So far it's 70% accurate.
It's really fun to use. It gives me a whole new medium to communicate with you, but this way of communicating is new to me so please be patient. This post is not going to be as amusing as my wife posts I don't have the years of experience she has as a cynic and razor-sharp writer.
So what's going on with me? It's hard to tell, I have made good friends here and I like the city, but I still haven't found exactly what I am going to do here, and it's not easy to be in a state of uncertainty. But there are a couple of possibilities:
1) to be a private chef - that means to cook for families and to fill up their refrigerator with food for the whole week. I hope to have between three to five families every week. This idea seems to be the most realistic one, but it needs a lot of work and marketing
2) to be a teacher or substitute teacher. to teach in New York you have to have a diploma from New York State and that could be tricky but I am going to check it out
3) to be a cook in a restaurant, there are plenty of good restaurants in Ithaca area, but I am not sure that I have the experience to start as a cook and I'm not sure I want to start in lower capacity
These are pretty much my options here work-wise. But I have lots of other things to do here, for example I am working with the head of the diversity office on a project that is supposed to expose the student in the business school to other cultures. She offered me this project after she heard of my Masters Degree in conflict resolution and mediation. We had a sit down for two hours. It was really fun, she's a very nice person. It was fun using my intellect and experience and I got some good feedback from her and now where are working on this project together. So you can see I'm trying to keep myself busy.
So how was this post? It was really a good experience for me to write on my own. I am going to give this post to Tamar to check for any big mistakes but it's going to stay pretty much as I wrote it so you can see how the program works.
Hugs and kisses to anyone that I usually give hugs and kisses to and a manly handshake to the rest of you.
I will sign out with my usual (~`face uri
Saturday, August 30, 2008
The pressure is on
Some of might read the title of this post and think they will find an entry explaining why I haven't written in more than a week and about how intensive school has been since classes began last Monday.
You would, of course, be mistaken.
I am actually referring to the pressure I am putting on Uri by posting this blog to go ahead and post the next blog himself. Now I explain: We finally bought a desktop, and then finally the university let us have a second IP address so we could connect that computer to the Internet, and then finally installed the voice-to-text software we bought before coming here. (I sort of took the whole point out of the word "finally" there, didn't I?) So, as it turns out, Uri can write in English. There are a little mistakes here and there, but as some of you bother to comment, I make a few mistakes too - don't I?
So just to clarify - Uri is perfectly capable of blogging now, and if he doesn't do it, it's because he doesn't care about any of you readers ;)
I reserve a short comment for myself - we'll go for a subtitle:
You'll understand only when you get here
Today, after a mildly useless strategic leadership course that lasted 4 hours I had a true Ivy league experience. I went to the basement floor of Cornell's undergrad library to see a one of 5 copies of the Gettysburg Address. That's the one that starts with "Four score and seven years ago" and ends with "government by the people, for the people". Then I sat down to write my first marketing case in one of the rooms of the Graduate Library. The Grad Library is in Uris Hall (though we've been calling it Uri's Hall), a building planned by William H Miller. I thought that was a bit more significant, but after writing the name, I googled it and came up with mostly nothing - I'll go back to the library and see what they have there. The point is that it's this beautiful old looking buildings, that includes a clock tower with bells. Did I already mention that they occasionally play concerts on those bells?
I sit in this beautiful room that overlooks the lake, and has so much atmosphere in it makes it seem like time goes by more slowly. This last part is very important because school has been very intensive since classes started last Monday, that is the reason I haven't blogged in more than a week.
You would, of course, be mistaken.
I am actually referring to the pressure I am putting on Uri by posting this blog to go ahead and post the next blog himself. Now I explain: We finally bought a desktop, and then finally the university let us have a second IP address so we could connect that computer to the Internet, and then finally installed the voice-to-text software we bought before coming here. (I sort of took the whole point out of the word "finally" there, didn't I?) So, as it turns out, Uri can write in English. There are a little mistakes here and there, but as some of you bother to comment, I make a few mistakes too - don't I?
So just to clarify - Uri is perfectly capable of blogging now, and if he doesn't do it, it's because he doesn't care about any of you readers ;)
I reserve a short comment for myself - we'll go for a subtitle:
You'll understand only when you get here
Today, after a mildly useless strategic leadership course that lasted 4 hours I had a true Ivy league experience. I went to the basement floor of Cornell's undergrad library to see a one of 5 copies of the Gettysburg Address. That's the one that starts with "Four score and seven years ago" and ends with "government by the people, for the people". Then I sat down to write my first marketing case in one of the rooms of the Graduate Library. The Grad Library is in Uris Hall (though we've been calling it Uri's Hall), a building planned by William H Miller. I thought that was a bit more significant, but after writing the name, I googled it and came up with mostly nothing - I'll go back to the library and see what they have there. The point is that it's this beautiful old looking buildings, that includes a clock tower with bells. Did I already mention that they occasionally play concerts on those bells?
I sit in this beautiful room that overlooks the lake, and has so much atmosphere in it makes it seem like time goes by more slowly. This last part is very important because school has been very intensive since classes started last Monday, that is the reason I haven't blogged in more than a week.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Comments for my future doctoral thesis
I'll start with explaining the title - I have no intention of doing a doctorate at this point in my life. However, I can't really turn off my sociologist view of the world. The interactions of my class and the things said in my classroom are enough to be the base of not just one, but several theses. I started writing a document i named "After thoughts", but I thought it would be much more interesting to share those thoughts with you.
I had a class today called "Foundations in Leadership" in which we were presented a story about a guy named Chad. Chad, an office-supplies salesman, was approached by Jerry who said he would buy a large quantity of office supplies if he were given a Rolex watch. The story gets a bit more complex, with Chad's BF, his Banker, his Boss and the Boss' secretary as additional characters. The assignment was to create a hierarchy of the characters, ranking them according to their morality (or lack there of). I, like many of the international students, had Jerry as least moral. Most of the Americans had Chad as least moral.
In this libertarian country, founded by a group of Protestants, it's all about choice and personal responsibility. Chad was the least moral because he made a conscious choice to bribe Jerry.
I had a class today called "Foundations in Leadership" in which we were presented a story about a guy named Chad. Chad, an office-supplies salesman, was approached by Jerry who said he would buy a large quantity of office supplies if he were given a Rolex watch. The story gets a bit more complex, with Chad's BF, his Banker, his Boss and the Boss' secretary as additional characters. The assignment was to create a hierarchy of the characters, ranking them according to their morality (or lack there of). I, like many of the international students, had Jerry as least moral. Most of the Americans had Chad as least moral.
In this libertarian country, founded by a group of Protestants, it's all about choice and personal responsibility. Chad was the least moral because he made a conscious choice to bribe Jerry.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Ready, Set, Network!
It's a good thing I added that "or tomorrow" at the end of my promise. I actually meant it as a joke, but here we are - and it's tomorrow. So I'll get to the point (because I actually still have school related things to do - more on that later on).
The first week has been very hectic. Some of the sessions we have are about getting to know the resources Cornell offers us. Some are about leadership (next week is going to be all about that). Most of the sessions we've been having are about what career path we want to take after we graduate and how we go about achieving that. Unfortunately the last part is still rather vague and taken out of a coffee table book. Points that are stressed are:
Tiny sidetrack to stress how much they have been saying that second part: On the second or third day, while the MBA students where in a session about Ethics, the school had a session for the spouses to speak with them both about what they will be going through, and what the school offers them. Uri's report was that all they talked about was how busy we (this is "we, the students", not "we, Uri and I") will be and that they should get used to not seeing us much. I think it was on the next day that we got our TV (Sony HD 32 inch that we found on sale). At this point I'll refer back to the beginning, when I said that I still have school relate stuff to do, I doubt that I will have anytime in the near future when I won't have school related stuff to do.
Back to the story - the last type of sessions that were on our schedule we "Networking Socials". What does this mean? It means that there are specific times the school put in our itinerary for the week in which the whole class, 270 people, stand in the school's Atrium with the goal of meeting each other. After a whole week of this I can honestly say that I can not think of a more tiring and useless way of meeting people. It feels a bit like speed dating on crack (not that I've tried either one). [They also told us to manage our online presence, so this I write this whole paragraph rather hesitantly]. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, is that the first 5 people you approach you can have a nice conversation with, but by the time you get to 6 your capacity to remember everything she/he tells you (and you always talk about the same thing - where they are from, what they did, what they want to do) is starting to dwindle. And since the "Networking Social" is scheduled until 5pm, and you still have an hour to go, you continue to the 7th person, and then 8, 9, 10... Maybe I should be writing "I" and not "you". I'm sure there are some of you out there (Mom, Shai...) that do have the capacity for this type of thing. But I'm pretty sure it's not just me who doesn't. Just so the recruiters that will be reading this in 6 months don't think I have no social skills, I will say that I have met some terrific people. I few of them I've actually met during a"Networking Social", but most of them I met either during or after breakout sessions, where we were in smaller groups and had a recent common experience to talk about. Oh - and it really helped that we didn't have the specific goal of meeting people. I will end this section by saying that the hardest part of networking (again, when it is done for the sake of networking) is ending the conversation. Off the bat, you would think that the hard part is starting the conversation - but it's really not, because everyone has the same goal: to network, so anyone you start talking to will happily talk to you. However ending the conversation is really hard. Once you finish hearing where they are from, what they previously did and what they want to do in the future and tell them the same about you, that should pretty much be it. You are in a room with at least 268 other people all talking at the same time, so the chances of finding a common subject to talk about and going into a more deep conversation in which you'll really get to know the person are pretty slim. Add to that the fact that both of you are looking around at the other 268 people and are thinking "I still have to meet all these people" (The Dean said so). The Save is usually one of you saying "I'm going to get a drink" or "I have to go to the restroom". So - I have to go to the restroom.
The first week has been very hectic. Some of the sessions we have are about getting to know the resources Cornell offers us. Some are about leadership (next week is going to be all about that). Most of the sessions we've been having are about what career path we want to take after we graduate and how we go about achieving that. Unfortunately the last part is still rather vague and taken out of a coffee table book. Points that are stressed are:
- Be authentic
- Know what you want
- Work hard at making and keeping contacts
- Remember to write the contacts you meet Thank You notes
- Make sure the Thank You notes/emails are spelled correctly.
Tiny sidetrack to stress how much they have been saying that second part: On the second or third day, while the MBA students where in a session about Ethics, the school had a session for the spouses to speak with them both about what they will be going through, and what the school offers them. Uri's report was that all they talked about was how busy we (this is "we, the students", not "we, Uri and I") will be and that they should get used to not seeing us much. I think it was on the next day that we got our TV (Sony HD 32 inch that we found on sale). At this point I'll refer back to the beginning, when I said that I still have school relate stuff to do, I doubt that I will have anytime in the near future when I won't have school related stuff to do.
Back to the story - the last type of sessions that were on our schedule we "Networking Socials". What does this mean? It means that there are specific times the school put in our itinerary for the week in which the whole class, 270 people, stand in the school's Atrium with the goal of meeting each other. After a whole week of this I can honestly say that I can not think of a more tiring and useless way of meeting people. It feels a bit like speed dating on crack (not that I've tried either one). [They also told us to manage our online presence, so this I write this whole paragraph rather hesitantly]. Anyway, the point I'm trying to make, is that the first 5 people you approach you can have a nice conversation with, but by the time you get to 6 your capacity to remember everything she/he tells you (and you always talk about the same thing - where they are from, what they did, what they want to do) is starting to dwindle. And since the "Networking Social" is scheduled until 5pm, and you still have an hour to go, you continue to the 7th person, and then 8, 9, 10... Maybe I should be writing "I" and not "you". I'm sure there are some of you out there (Mom, Shai...) that do have the capacity for this type of thing. But I'm pretty sure it's not just me who doesn't. Just so the recruiters that will be reading this in 6 months don't think I have no social skills, I will say that I have met some terrific people. I few of them I've actually met during a"Networking Social", but most of them I met either during or after breakout sessions, where we were in smaller groups and had a recent common experience to talk about. Oh - and it really helped that we didn't have the specific goal of meeting people. I will end this section by saying that the hardest part of networking (again, when it is done for the sake of networking) is ending the conversation. Off the bat, you would think that the hard part is starting the conversation - but it's really not, because everyone has the same goal: to network, so anyone you start talking to will happily talk to you. However ending the conversation is really hard. Once you finish hearing where they are from, what they previously did and what they want to do in the future and tell them the same about you, that should pretty much be it. You are in a room with at least 268 other people all talking at the same time, so the chances of finding a common subject to talk about and going into a more deep conversation in which you'll really get to know the person are pretty slim. Add to that the fact that both of you are looking around at the other 268 people and are thinking "I still have to meet all these people" (The Dean said so). The Save is usually one of you saying "I'm going to get a drink" or "I have to go to the restroom". So - I have to go to the restroom.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
The Moment of Truth
So school Started this week. Officially, it still hasn't. We are in "Orientation". Which basically means we're learning stuff, but not being graded on it.
I actually don't have time to write now. I spent the 30 minutes I had this morning putting up the pic of Uri below, adding the link to Lior's pics and trying to figure out how I transfer the school's public calender in Outlook Exchange to my Private calender in my Outlook Desktop so I could then go ahead and sync that with my Google Calendar.
Don't worry - I wrote all that out just to say that I know it's ridiculous, and a bit of a time waster, but that's modern times for you.
Anyway, I decided to post this anyway as a sort of vow that I will blog today! or tomorrow ;).
I'm off now - "morning session of "Career Self Assessment".
I actually don't have time to write now. I spent the 30 minutes I had this morning putting up the pic of Uri below, adding the link to Lior's pics and trying to figure out how I transfer the school's public calender in Outlook Exchange to my Private calender in my Outlook Desktop so I could then go ahead and sync that with my Google Calendar.
Don't worry - I wrote all that out just to say that I know it's ridiculous, and a bit of a time waster, but that's modern times for you.
Anyway, I decided to post this anyway as a sort of vow that I will blog today! or tomorrow ;).
I'm off now - "morning session of "Career Self Assessment".
Monday, August 11, 2008
The Wedding
So the weekend is over, we said goodbye to our friends, and now it really begins.
Well, sort of - I'm on a bus on the way to Ithaca while Uri is still in NYC with our friends. Tomorrow they are going to 6 Flags - Great adventure, home of the Kinda Ka. Of all the things I'm missing out on, I think this is the one I'm most jealous of.
This weekend was all about Marc and Wolly's wedding. It was probably the biggest wedding I've been to, not in terms of the amount of people (no one can compete with Israelis there), but it terms of production.
The wedding began on Thursday with the rehearsal dinner that took place in the basement floor of a cool place called The Smith.
The wedding itself was Friday night. We both got dressed up. For Uri this meant wearing a suit for the first time. I think that I can objectively say that the suit suited him well, but I'll add a picture so you can judge for yourselves.
The venue was Tribeca Rooftop and it was amazing. When we got there it was still light out, but as the cocktail hour(s) went on the sun set and all the while we had an awe inspiring view of the Hudson and the Brooklyn skyline. The food was fabulous (and plentiful). Opening cocktail included, a cheese bar (with an amazing aged cheddar), a cold seafood bar, a sushi bar, a martini bar and an alcohol bar. Even the peanuts at the bar were great. Afterward there was a buffet that featured an amazing Chilean Sea-bass (I'm pretty sure it was marinated in milk) and pork-chops (I think) which I didn't try, but I'm told were really good too.
There was a fantastic three tier wedding cake and assorted tarts and truffles for dessert. Marc and Wolly will have to forgive me that I'm not describing every little thing in detail, but if I do this post will never end. If you really want to know, your can check out their blog Gromzilla & I, maybe they will have it there. Add for those of you that want the story in picture's you can check out Lior's Flickr page (besides the batteries in our camera ran out, we were too lazy to bring in to all these events - it didn't really go with the suit).
Anyway, back to the important stuff - the ceremony way beautiful mainly because of the beautiful vows Marc wrote for Wolly and the funny (yet still touching) vows Wolly wrote for Marc. The ceremony was presided by a reform (woman) Rabbi who reminded me of a character in a movie, but I still can't place my finger on exactly who. Her part of the ceremony was a bit strange to me, since she kept going back and forth between speaking in English and blessing/singing in Hebrew. There is a certain sacredness that comes from the fact that to American Jews, Hebrew is the language of the holy texts, and not an everyday language. In Israel we understand every word said by itself. Thus a single word might start a random line of thought or a line can be played with, its meaning changed (like Yehuda Amichai did in El Male Rachamim). Here it was different, Hafrada Bein Kodesh Le'Chol.
Of course there was also speeches, dancing, and the obligatory video montage AND also something called a Mazinka. I would appreciate any information any of you have on this thing. Apparently, the Mazinka in a Jewish-American tradition that celebrates the wedding of the last child. The proud parents (who now don't have to worry about who the kids are going to bring home) sit with floral writhes on their head while their family and friends dance around them. Strange but true.
I will say again that it was THE wedding. I know that Americans have different standard than Israelis, and if we continue to live here, we'll probably be invited to other impressive weddings, but I doubt any will match this one. It's all in the details, and Wolly and Marc (I assume especially Marc) paid a lot of attention to a lot of details - from the "save the date" magnets, to the decor, to the suits they wore, and the outfits they changed into after the ceremony, all the way to the Bagelworks muffins that waited for the guests when we exited the venue.
Oh - and on Saturday there was brunch at a Dim Sum place in Chinatown called Golden Unicorn.
I'm getting tiered of writing, I can only imagine how the two of you who really got all the way here are tiered of reading, so in bullets - things we did in the city, in between the wedding events, while saying goodbye to our friends (mainly food related):
- Friday: Went to Houston's to eat the grilled chicken salad. Uri claims it's worth the $16. I'm not sure I agree, but it is very good. Conclusion: Don't trust Eitan's uncle when he calls something a "diner".
- Saturday: Went jogging in Central Park: I'm really proud of myself, I kept up with Uri and Eitan (who didn't even brake a sweat) as we ran through the park a whole hour.
- Saturday: Went with all the friends (sans grooms) to Hill Country. Cool BBQ place meant for menly-men.
Now, as I said in the beginning, I'm on the bus to Ithaca. It started raining before, but now it stopped. The driver keeps stopping by the side of the road (literally, on the side of the road, not in rest-stops) to go to the toilet. Hopefully I'll be home in an hour.
Well, sort of - I'm on a bus on the way to Ithaca while Uri is still in NYC with our friends. Tomorrow they are going to 6 Flags - Great adventure, home of the Kinda Ka. Of all the things I'm missing out on, I think this is the one I'm most jealous of.
This weekend was all about Marc and Wolly's wedding. It was probably the biggest wedding I've been to, not in terms of the amount of people (no one can compete with Israelis there), but it terms of production.
The wedding began on Thursday with the rehearsal dinner that took place in the basement floor of a cool place called The Smith.
The wedding itself was Friday night. We both got dressed up. For Uri this meant wearing a suit for the first time. I think that I can objectively say that the suit suited him well, but I'll add a picture so you can judge for yourselves.
The venue was Tribeca Rooftop and it was amazing. When we got there it was still light out, but as the cocktail hour(s) went on the sun set and all the while we had an awe inspiring view of the Hudson and the Brooklyn skyline. The food was fabulous (and plentiful). Opening cocktail included, a cheese bar (with an amazing aged cheddar), a cold seafood bar, a sushi bar, a martini bar and an alcohol bar. Even the peanuts at the bar were great. Afterward there was a buffet that featured an amazing Chilean Sea-bass (I'm pretty sure it was marinated in milk) and pork-chops (I think) which I didn't try, but I'm told were really good too.
There was a fantastic three tier wedding cake and assorted tarts and truffles for dessert. Marc and Wolly will have to forgive me that I'm not describing every little thing in detail, but if I do this post will never end. If you really want to know, your can check out their blog Gromzilla & I, maybe they will have it there. Add for those of you that want the story in picture's you can check out Lior's Flickr page (besides the batteries in our camera ran out, we were too lazy to bring in to all these events - it didn't really go with the suit).
Anyway, back to the important stuff - the ceremony way beautiful mainly because of the beautiful vows Marc wrote for Wolly and the funny (yet still touching) vows Wolly wrote for Marc. The ceremony was presided by a reform (woman) Rabbi who reminded me of a character in a movie, but I still can't place my finger on exactly who. Her part of the ceremony was a bit strange to me, since she kept going back and forth between speaking in English and blessing/singing in Hebrew. There is a certain sacredness that comes from the fact that to American Jews, Hebrew is the language of the holy texts, and not an everyday language. In Israel we understand every word said by itself. Thus a single word might start a random line of thought or a line can be played with, its meaning changed (like Yehuda Amichai did in El Male Rachamim). Here it was different, Hafrada Bein Kodesh Le'Chol.
Of course there was also speeches, dancing, and the obligatory video montage AND also something called a Mazinka. I would appreciate any information any of you have on this thing. Apparently, the Mazinka in a Jewish-American tradition that celebrates the wedding of the last child. The proud parents (who now don't have to worry about who the kids are going to bring home) sit with floral writhes on their head while their family and friends dance around them. Strange but true.
I will say again that it was THE wedding. I know that Americans have different standard than Israelis, and if we continue to live here, we'll probably be invited to other impressive weddings, but I doubt any will match this one. It's all in the details, and Wolly and Marc (I assume especially Marc) paid a lot of attention to a lot of details - from the "save the date" magnets, to the decor, to the suits they wore, and the outfits they changed into after the ceremony, all the way to the Bagelworks muffins that waited for the guests when we exited the venue.
Oh - and on Saturday there was brunch at a Dim Sum place in Chinatown called Golden Unicorn.
I'm getting tiered of writing, I can only imagine how the two of you who really got all the way here are tiered of reading, so in bullets - things we did in the city, in between the wedding events, while saying goodbye to our friends (mainly food related):
- Friday: Went to Houston's to eat the grilled chicken salad. Uri claims it's worth the $16. I'm not sure I agree, but it is very good. Conclusion: Don't trust Eitan's uncle when he calls something a "diner".
- Saturday: Went jogging in Central Park: I'm really proud of myself, I kept up with Uri and Eitan (who didn't even brake a sweat) as we ran through the park a whole hour.
- Saturday: Went with all the friends (sans grooms) to Hill Country. Cool BBQ place meant for menly-men.
Now, as I said in the beginning, I'm on the bus to Ithaca. It started raining before, but now it stopped. The driver keeps stopping by the side of the road (literally, on the side of the road, not in rest-stops) to go to the toilet. Hopefully I'll be home in an hour.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Ithaca is Gorges!
This will be short:
While I was finalizing the bureaucracies of us buying and registering our 2006 Honda Civic (Whoo-hoo! We got a car!), Uri took our house-guests hiking in the Ithaca area. During their first day, they went kayaking in Cayuga Lake, which gets all the way to the bottom of Ithaca. They didn't take the camera, so I have no pics of that.
On the second day, they did 2 hikes, one a bit north of the city, and one a bit to the south. After they came back, we walked around campus and went up to the 5th floor of Cornell's Art Museum for a scenic view of downtown and the lake.
Uri didn't divulge any information about the hikes, so I have nothing to write, but enjoy the pictures. Everything you see is less than an hour's drive from our house.
While I was finalizing the bureaucracies of us buying and registering our 2006 Honda Civic (Whoo-hoo! We got a car!), Uri took our house-guests hiking in the Ithaca area. During their first day, they went kayaking in Cayuga Lake, which gets all the way to the bottom of Ithaca. They didn't take the camera, so I have no pics of that.
On the second day, they did 2 hikes, one a bit north of the city, and one a bit to the south. After they came back, we walked around campus and went up to the 5th floor of Cornell's Art Museum for a scenic view of downtown and the lake.
Uri didn't divulge any information about the hikes, so I have nothing to write, but enjoy the pictures. Everything you see is less than an hour's drive from our house.
Eitan's Happy Meal
The blog hasn't been updated for the last few days because we simply had no time. Our friends from Israel - Yuval, Bella and Eitan came up to visit. They are here (in the USA) for the event of the century - Marc & Wolly's wedding, and while in the area, decided to see where we live.
Since Eitan, like us, loves to cook, Uri guessed that he would love to have the opportunity to go shopping at Wegmans and cook a meal.
It was a bit scary to see Eitan loose at Wegmans. Eyes wide open, his radar immediately found the most expensive items they had on sale, then the finger went out, pointing: "I'll have some of those please".
Anyway, what came out was a fantastic meal, that probably should have been 3 separate meals:
Appetizer:
Seared Fresh Scallops with Fresh Salsa (tomatoes, fresh sweet corn, red onion, cilantro, apricot) in a Baked Corn Tortilla Cone
Main:
Surf & Turf: Lobster and Steak
Sides:
6 Mushrooms, Sauteed
Baked Potato Duet: White & Purple Oven Baked Potatoes
Sauteed Red Swiss Chard
Green Salad: Dandelion Greens (this are terrific, the have a strong, horseradish flavor), Lettuce and Cucumber with a Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette)
No dessert needed!
Enjoy the pics!
Since Eitan, like us, loves to cook, Uri guessed that he would love to have the opportunity to go shopping at Wegmans and cook a meal.
It was a bit scary to see Eitan loose at Wegmans. Eyes wide open, his radar immediately found the most expensive items they had on sale, then the finger went out, pointing: "I'll have some of those please".
Anyway, what came out was a fantastic meal, that probably should have been 3 separate meals:
Appetizer:
Seared Fresh Scallops with Fresh Salsa (tomatoes, fresh sweet corn, red onion, cilantro, apricot) in a Baked Corn Tortilla Cone
Main:
Surf & Turf: Lobster and Steak
Sides:
6 Mushrooms, Sauteed
Baked Potato Duet: White & Purple Oven Baked Potatoes
Sauteed Red Swiss Chard
Green Salad: Dandelion Greens (this are terrific, the have a strong, horseradish flavor), Lettuce and Cucumber with a Honey-Mustard Vinaigrette)
No dessert needed!
Enjoy the pics!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Saturday is Sunday in the USA
In between all the shopping, we did other important things like open a bank account and get mobile phones. I mention the two together because they are the begging and (hopefully) the end of a lesson we learned about credit that made us think that maybe the by-line of this blog should have been "The adventures of two Israelis trying to establish credit in the land of plenty". While in the bank, I discussed with the manager getting a credit card. This was after he told us that we would each receive a debit card. Uri, confused, said "If we have the debit card, I don't understand why we need a credit card too".
I replied that we need to start establishing credit. He nodded, but when we were back in the car, he said to me, "I still don't really get it".
From the bank we headed to Verizon, the preferred mobile phone company in the Ithaca area (they have the best reception). After looking around, we wanted to buy numbers and phones. Not as easy as you might think. It turns out that to do that, they run a credit check on you, and if you don't have credit (meaning: you've proved that your an honest person, meaning: that you have money, meaning: that you pay your credit card bills on time) they don't sell you a phone without a very hefty deposit. Seriously? Yes! So... Lesson learned.
Paris Hilton once again popped into my mind - Obviously, Paris does not need to buy using credit. So I wonder - Does she buy things using a credit card instead of a debit card simply to establish credit history? If not, then did she too have to put a deposit down when she got her mobile phone?
And now for something completely different:
To get used to the fact that the week here starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, we had the other MBA Israelis over for Sabbath Tchulent for lunch on Sunday (Uri insists, so I’m adding: Chamin).
It was excellent. US adjustments were made: There was Kogel instead of Kishke, and no Shmaltz was used, but it hit the spot anyway. The day was even a bit gloomy, just to get the atmosphere going. For dessert I made rustic tarts with pastry cream and fresh summer fruit (4 (!) different kinds of berries). Just to make clear - "rustic" because I have no electrical kitchen gear or a rolling pin, so the pastry crust was rather rough looking.
Kogel:
2.5 cups of flour
1 cup oil
1 large onion, sauteed
1 egg
¼ teaspoon mustard powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
Mix all the ingredients together and pot in a cooking bag, place in the stew pot.
It's a food slideshow this time. You can click on the little speech bubble icon to see my comment on each picture.
I replied that we need to start establishing credit. He nodded, but when we were back in the car, he said to me, "I still don't really get it".
From the bank we headed to Verizon, the preferred mobile phone company in the Ithaca area (they have the best reception). After looking around, we wanted to buy numbers and phones. Not as easy as you might think. It turns out that to do that, they run a credit check on you, and if you don't have credit (meaning: you've proved that your an honest person, meaning: that you have money, meaning: that you pay your credit card bills on time) they don't sell you a phone without a very hefty deposit. Seriously? Yes! So... Lesson learned.
Paris Hilton once again popped into my mind - Obviously, Paris does not need to buy using credit. So I wonder - Does she buy things using a credit card instead of a debit card simply to establish credit history? If not, then did she too have to put a deposit down when she got her mobile phone?
And now for something completely different:
To get used to the fact that the week here starts on Monday and ends on Sunday, we had the other MBA Israelis over for Sabbath Tchulent for lunch on Sunday (Uri insists, so I’m adding: Chamin).
It was excellent. US adjustments were made: There was Kogel instead of Kishke, and no Shmaltz was used, but it hit the spot anyway. The day was even a bit gloomy, just to get the atmosphere going. For dessert I made rustic tarts with pastry cream and fresh summer fruit (4 (!) different kinds of berries). Just to make clear - "rustic" because I have no electrical kitchen gear or a rolling pin, so the pastry crust was rather rough looking.
Kogel:
2.5 cups of flour
1 cup oil
1 large onion, sauteed
1 egg
¼ teaspoon mustard powder
Salt and pepper, to taste
Mix all the ingredients together and pot in a cooking bag, place in the stew pot.
It's a food slideshow this time. You can click on the little speech bubble icon to see my comment on each picture.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Canned Cornucopia
So the question still remains: How do you make a house a home?
The answer is: by filling it with stuff.
Yes, yes... you also need to fill it with love, and friendship and good-times, (and the sent of the Tchullent cooking downstairs in the oven isn't bad toward the wanted "homey" affect). All that is true and nice. But you also need stuff.
Stuff that you can call your own, stuff that makes you feel your house is different from the house to your left (or the one on your right), stuff that helps you relax when you come in after a long day. For those of you shaking their heads right now, asking - "Why can't they relax with a good book?" I will answer: (1) a book is also stuff (2) it would be nice to have a shelf to put that book with after your done reading.
After that forward, I will now explain that our first week of Ithaca was mainly spent buying things. Let me tell you - For a small town, this place sure has a lot of malls! There are 2 mall complexes, one on each side of town, each actually consisting of around three separate malls. So as far as everything for the home type stores: there is a K-Mart, a Wal-Mart, a Target, a Sears (though a small one), Lowe's, Home Depot. For supermarkets: a Wegmans (I hyper-linked that one because it's the nicest, with huge fresh meat and seafood counters, lots of local fruits and veggies and fresh bagels made around the clock), 2 Tops and a P&C. In the supermarket department there's also something called Aldie. We went there after being tipped off that it's the cheapest supermarket. We went in expecting a warehouse, and accordingly, warehouse prices. Instead it turned out to be a rather small supermarket with imitation everything. You know the type: That everything is generic, but made to be reminiscent of the real thing. So "I can't believe it's not butter" will still be yellow, but will be called: Butter-flavored vegetable spread that is reminiscent of butter". And some things might have named similar to the original, like "Hola" a red bottle labeled "Carmel flavored fizzy soft drink". Anyway that place was really depressing and Uri and I decided that without the need to feed 5 children, the price difference did not justify the depressing atmosphere there.
Wow look at that - I wrote all this, and still have not gotten to what I initially wanted to say... can you handle more? If you can - read on, if you need a break:
Anyway, we spent the first 3 days just going between stores buying thing. From essentials like toilet paper, to must haves like lamps for the living room (I already mentioned it's low and dark - right?) to personal touches like shelves for the kitchen with baskets for the potato and onions. I have to tell you that I have a new respect for Paris Hilton. It is not easy to do so much shopping. After about three hours, your eyes start to water from the neon lights, your head start to sway a little, and your most intelligent thoughts are (read in cookie-monster voice): "Oh! Look at all the pretty colors" and "Ah! This pillow so soft and nice".
One of the most amazing things about shopping in the United States concerns grocery shopping. I can not begin to describe the extent of which everything is pre-packaged. The supermarkets are just rows and rows of cans and jars and finding basic items (ie dried beans, tomato paste without flavorings) is really hard. This of course, versus the Israeli supermarkets where there is a "canned goods" section. Also, walking around the supermarket, we keep saying to yourselves "What will they think of next?" (Or, when in a more cynical mood, "How lazy can these people be?"). They have taken the "take the same thing, make a tiny change, and sell it as something new" concept to an unbelievable level. For example: Garbage bags: at first it was just a bag, then there was the whole string thing, now there is also bags the have flaps, so tying the bag will be easier. Or, a special plastic cooking bag (very different from a regular cooking bag, because it has a different name) that one puts inside the slow cooker before using it so as to avoid the need to clean the slow cooker after using it. Amazing.
Friday, we decided not to go shopping at all. Saturday we tried to have an alternative shopping experience. We started the day by driving north to Trumansburg to check out a garage sale. I will quote Uri who defined it as: "People trying to sell junk they bought at other people's garage sale and then found out they have no-where to put it". We were younger by at least 40 years from anyone else we saw. These included two gentlemen that had an oxygen device hooked to their belt. This experience made it clear that in this post-Craig's List era, garage sales are really for those who don't know that the Internet is on computers now. From there we headed to the Ithaca Farmer's Market which was a bit disappointing on the practical side. I don't know why we expected it to be cheaper than buying at the supermarket. But I'll cut the story short by simply saying that it wasn't. Around a third of the stands sell prepared food, which makes the market a nice place to get lunch (though, again, not a cheap lunch), but since we did need to by fruits and veggies, we headed afterward to Wegmans to do our shopping.
To end on a high note: On the way from the garage sale to the market, Uri spotted a guy BBQ grilling in a parking lot. The size of his grill, the amount of chicken he had inside and the fact that he was almost alone were signs that this was not a family-weekend BBQ. We pulled into the parking lot, and it turns out that this guy, for a couple of years now, has been selling BBQ ribs and "Cornell Chickens" every weekend. We bought a chicken, which Uri had for dinner - Delicious! The guy said that the NY Times just interviewed him, and that he will be featured sometime soon, so when that comes around, I'll send the link.
The answer is: by filling it with stuff.
Yes, yes... you also need to fill it with love, and friendship and good-times, (and the sent of the Tchullent cooking downstairs in the oven isn't bad toward the wanted "homey" affect). All that is true and nice. But you also need stuff.
Stuff that you can call your own, stuff that makes you feel your house is different from the house to your left (or the one on your right), stuff that helps you relax when you come in after a long day. For those of you shaking their heads right now, asking - "Why can't they relax with a good book?" I will answer: (1) a book is also stuff (2) it would be nice to have a shelf to put that book with after your done reading.
After that forward, I will now explain that our first week of Ithaca was mainly spent buying things. Let me tell you - For a small town, this place sure has a lot of malls! There are 2 mall complexes, one on each side of town, each actually consisting of around three separate malls. So as far as everything for the home type stores: there is a K-Mart, a Wal-Mart, a Target, a Sears (though a small one), Lowe's, Home Depot. For supermarkets: a Wegmans (I hyper-linked that one because it's the nicest, with huge fresh meat and seafood counters, lots of local fruits and veggies and fresh bagels made around the clock), 2 Tops and a P&C. In the supermarket department there's also something called Aldie. We went there after being tipped off that it's the cheapest supermarket. We went in expecting a warehouse, and accordingly, warehouse prices. Instead it turned out to be a rather small supermarket with imitation everything. You know the type: That everything is generic, but made to be reminiscent of the real thing. So "I can't believe it's not butter" will still be yellow, but will be called: Butter-flavored vegetable spread that is reminiscent of butter". And some things might have named similar to the original, like "Hola" a red bottle labeled "Carmel flavored fizzy soft drink". Anyway that place was really depressing and Uri and I decided that without the need to feed 5 children, the price difference did not justify the depressing atmosphere there.
Wow look at that - I wrote all this, and still have not gotten to what I initially wanted to say... can you handle more? If you can - read on, if you need a break:
Anyway, we spent the first 3 days just going between stores buying thing. From essentials like toilet paper, to must haves like lamps for the living room (I already mentioned it's low and dark - right?) to personal touches like shelves for the kitchen with baskets for the potato and onions. I have to tell you that I have a new respect for Paris Hilton. It is not easy to do so much shopping. After about three hours, your eyes start to water from the neon lights, your head start to sway a little, and your most intelligent thoughts are (read in cookie-monster voice): "Oh! Look at all the pretty colors" and "Ah! This pillow so soft and nice".
One of the most amazing things about shopping in the United States concerns grocery shopping. I can not begin to describe the extent of which everything is pre-packaged. The supermarkets are just rows and rows of cans and jars and finding basic items (ie dried beans, tomato paste without flavorings) is really hard. This of course, versus the Israeli supermarkets where there is a "canned goods" section. Also, walking around the supermarket, we keep saying to yourselves "What will they think of next?" (Or, when in a more cynical mood, "How lazy can these people be?"). They have taken the "take the same thing, make a tiny change, and sell it as something new" concept to an unbelievable level. For example: Garbage bags: at first it was just a bag, then there was the whole string thing, now there is also bags the have flaps, so tying the bag will be easier. Or, a special plastic cooking bag (very different from a regular cooking bag, because it has a different name) that one puts inside the slow cooker before using it so as to avoid the need to clean the slow cooker after using it. Amazing.
Friday, we decided not to go shopping at all. Saturday we tried to have an alternative shopping experience. We started the day by driving north to Trumansburg to check out a garage sale. I will quote Uri who defined it as: "People trying to sell junk they bought at other people's garage sale and then found out they have no-where to put it". We were younger by at least 40 years from anyone else we saw. These included two gentlemen that had an oxygen device hooked to their belt. This experience made it clear that in this post-Craig's List era, garage sales are really for those who don't know that the Internet is on computers now. From there we headed to the Ithaca Farmer's Market which was a bit disappointing on the practical side. I don't know why we expected it to be cheaper than buying at the supermarket. But I'll cut the story short by simply saying that it wasn't. Around a third of the stands sell prepared food, which makes the market a nice place to get lunch (though, again, not a cheap lunch), but since we did need to by fruits and veggies, we headed afterward to Wegmans to do our shopping.
To end on a high note: On the way from the garage sale to the market, Uri spotted a guy BBQ grilling in a parking lot. The size of his grill, the amount of chicken he had inside and the fact that he was almost alone were signs that this was not a family-weekend BBQ. We pulled into the parking lot, and it turns out that this guy, for a couple of years now, has been selling BBQ ribs and "Cornell Chickens" every weekend. We bought a chicken, which Uri had for dinner - Delicious! The guy said that the NY Times just interviewed him, and that he will be featured sometime soon, so when that comes around, I'll send the link.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)