You are currently browsing the archives for May, 2007.
Last night our friend Daniel B. invited me, my flatmate Sahar, and a few other friends to a dinner at his new apartment to celebrate his move from our building. We arrived at 6 pm and started helping prepare the food. We tried turning on the stove to start frying veggies…
and it wouldn’t light. No gas was coming out.
Sahar and I trooped around to the back of the building to see if the gas balloon had run out. As we turned the corner, we encountered a large dog chained on the hill above us. After consultation we decided to walk past him calmly and ignore the barking.
As I checked each of the gas ballons, Sahar chatted with the dog. It was impossible to tell which one was for Daniel’s apartment. We threw up our hands in despair and went back inside. Daniel called a few other Baha’is on that street and Adam C. kindly offered his stove. Sahar and Jayce took some of the food over to start the process.
As Daniel and I were preparing the rest of the food, the fuse blew. Twice. We couldn’t find the fuse box at first, finally locating it in the hallway outside his door.
Sahar called when she got to Adam’s house. “Um…the stove here isn’t working, the guys are trying to figure it out.” I started laughing. They eventually got it lit (someone had turned off their gas line!) and we ate dinner at 9 pm.
It was a wonderful adventure, and we ate a ridiculous amount of food when it was all over.
Recently I’ve been trying to expand my repertoire of dishes. Last night I made Sholeh zard for the first time (literal translation: yellow flame), which is basically saffron rice pudding. It is usually made in remembrance of the dead, but honestly it is one of my favorite Persian dishes. I had a bunch of friends try it and I got pretty decent reviews…and it is pretty easy to make.
For dinner I was at a friend’s house after work, so I had a limited number of ingredients. I scrounged around (having brought slices of turkey lunchmeat and a red pepper), and this is what I came up with! Adjust amount according to how many people you are serving.
Ingredients:
olive oil
red pepper (also known as Capsicum), sliced into thin strips
mushrooms, sliced
onion, diced
garlic, diced
pinch of basil
salt
pepper
cheese (I used Laughing Cow wedges)
turkey slices (or bread)
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Fry the olive oil, garlic, onion, and red pepper in a pan until the onion starts to turn clear. Add the mushrooms, basil, salt, pepper. At the very end, add the cheese on top and let it melt slightly (not too much).
I wrapped the finished mixture in turkey slices to eat since I can’t eat bread, but you can experiment and see what you like to do.
There has been silence in moments we stand,
here my eyes watch with laughter behind
and incoherent words trip through my lips
to fall flat on the floor.
My identity is submerged,
my thoughts are secret and strange. I promise that you’ve never seen me before.
I saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie last night. I really only enjoyed it for nostalgia’s sake, quite frankly. It was not as good as I’d hoped based on the trailer.
I now realize how disconnected I truly am from popular American culture….mostly the entertainment side of things. On one hand, it is easy to access a lot of these things (I even saw Spiderman 3 on opening weekend). But while Israel has all of these things, the culture at the Baha’i World Centre just isn’t focused on those things. Sure, we go to movies, and the mall, and are on the internet (probably too much!). But if you don’t seek it out there is no reason why you would know what is going on.
The first few months I still had my “fingers on the pulse”, but as I spend more time here I become more content with a life less consumed with these things. One thing I found lacking was my access to news/science/business. Back home I would read BusinessWeek, Forbes, National Geographic, Discover, and a few other random magazines…and then suddenly I wasn’t anymore.
I recently discovered the news feeds on my blog aggregator, so I have a feeling I’ll be getting back into my geekiness soon enough.
From Baha’i World News Service:
“….His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II…passed away on the evening of 11 May…A follower of the Baha’i Faith, he was one of the longest reigning monarchs in the world. ”
He was the first ruling monarch to accept the Baha’i Faith (Queen Marie of Romania was not a ruling monarch when she accepted the Faith), and there is a Baha’i House of Worship in Samoa.
Please keep him in your prayers.
Last night we were studying the Kitab-i-Ahd, and this particularly struck me, because recently I’ve been feeling the need for more wisdom in my utterance and my thoughts…been a bit tangled and thorny recently…
Verily I say, the tongue is for mentioning what is good, defile it not with unseemly talk. God hath forgiven what is past. Henceforward everyone should utter that which is meet and seemly, and should refrain from slander, abuse and whatever causeth sadness in men.
-Baha’u'llah“Unseemly talk”, in my opinion, isn’t just using bad language or saying cruel things…it is also idle chatter or unwise speech. Moderation in all things, of course, since we can’t
always talk about philosophy and deep subjects (well,
I can’t, I need to be silly once in a while). It seems like a lot of my friends and acquaintances have been thinking about the power of language and speech recently. (See Abi’s excellent post
here.)
At Naw Ruz (the Baha’i New Year), the choir sang in the Seat of the Universal House of Justice for the Holy Day observance. If you look closely, you can see me in there. This video was put together by one of our choir members, Glenn, and it really gives you a good idea of how Holy Days are observed at the World Centre. Thanks to Glenn for uploading it and allowing the rest of us to embed it.
And for Ridvan, the choir sang in the Auditorium of the International Teaching Center building. Unfortunately I was unable to join them, since I’d had pneumonia while they had been practicing, but they did a wonderful job. The music on this one isn’t the choir’s actual performance (it is a professional recording), but about halfway through you can see the choir getting ready for the performance.
Finally, today marks 5 months that I have been serving in Haifa, Israel. Hard to believe.
My flatmates and I took a little train ride to Tel Aviv for the 12th Day of Ridvan. We went with no destination, no map, no plans. It was wonderful. And here is my story (with pictures) of our adventures. Click on the links.
We arrived in the afternoon. We found the mall right next to the train station, but it felt like I was back in the USA. We soon left to go to a wonderful street market, where we shopped to our hearts’ content, and I drooled over spices & veggies that I couldn’t possibly carry back with me on the train.
Proceeding down a back alley, I felt like I was in Europe, and we wandered about taking pictures and finding our way back to the main road. We spent a nice hour at a restaurant to rest our feet.
I found a bag shop, where I purchased a messenger bag for a very good price, and chatted with the owner while he fixed the zipper on my other bag for free! The shop was his father’s since 1971, and he used to have a factory outside Tel Aviv, but imports from China forced him to shut it down, and now he just runs the shop. There was also the discovery of a store with shoes that were all 30 NIS, which is about 7 USD.
And finally, we left on the 7:40 train to go back to Haifa.
I picked up the abridged version of Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire the other day, just for fun, from a friend’s bookshelf.
Then I borrowed Jane Austen’s Complete Novels (8 books in 1), and have read the first two in the last week.
I think perhaps I am a little bit crazy.
