Where in the world is Carmen San Diego? HOME!!

And by CSD I mean the computer game, not the TV show of course. I used to be addicted. I kind of felt like I was on a hunt in the past 2 days: left Kochin in 9:00 am on Wednesday, arrived in Colombo (by the way- we saw the building that represents CSD in the game! that's where the reference came from), woke up at 2:00 (now that is not a legit hour, my friends!) left Sri Lanka at 7:00 am, arrived in Amman at 11:35 am which to us was 14:00 pm and waited until our flight to TLV which was at 10:00 pm (12:30 pm for us. the whole half hour difference was really weird). Luckily RJA (Royal Jordenian Airlined) had hotel rooms so we could A. Sleep, and B. eat NON SPICY FOOD!!!!! never thought I'd be so eat peppers- when they don't make me feel like "oh-my-god-that's-so-spicy-i'm-about-the-blow-my-brains-out-and-hit-the-moon-now-please-get-me-some-water-quick". YES!!
And now we are back home! Back to an another possible strike, two final exams from last term, job finding etc....there is no place like home. photos to come when I get home for real (we are staying with my sister and gang..)
and here is a spoiler- Carmen San Diego was caught:-) see you in prison!

Kochin

We are now in Kochin- the area were my family came from. We are staying in Ernakulam- the city (used to be just a town) my dad and my uncle were born in. We went to see the neighborhood yesterday: saw my dad's preschool and two synagogues, but couldn't locate the exact house and my grandfather's store (my grandfather was a butcher. Good thing he never knew his granddaughter is a vegetarian..). After looking for the place, we decided my dad will take pictures and show one of the other siblings (They are Nine) and figure out which of the houses is the one. In the meantime we've taken pictures of all the optional ones so once we know we'll have a photo of the house:-)
Later we went around town (which is one big city these days). We were all so fed up with the Indian food we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was good not to have my mouth on fire for one night.
Other than that My funny signs collection is getting bigger and bigger! Today's hit: a sign saying "Dutch cemetery" and underneath on small letters another saying "God's own country" or something like that. I thought it was historical.
Another thing to be mentioned is the daily power cut off. Unbelievable. There hasn't been a single day with no power cuts. Makes me feel right at home!
can't believe I'll be home in Three days.

Thekkady- Masa Alukot

So, it's been a few days. We have been to quite a few places, and now we are in Munnar- our last stop before Kochin. The road was rather steep and incredible. Tea plantations, trees, mountains, lakes- gorgeous.
Today's amusing story: yesterday we were in Thekkady- a very toured area. We decided to go on an organized trip which included a jeep safari, a hike and boating. We got up at 5:00 am (ugh) and left. The safari part was OK- no animals though- they promised elephants, cows, tigers.... it was showering rain.
We had breakfast in a pavilion in which some guy gave us a lecture about the area. Jees, the mans accent was totally unfamiliar to the human ear, and I couldn't stop giggling. He spotted that and lectured me (!!) which of course made me giggle even more. In the showering rain we left for our 3 hours hike. The good news- we saw animals. The bad news- they were leaches! Millions of them! We weren't quite prepared for that, so basically every ten seconds we had to stop for salt pouring and tried poking them with a stick. It was actually quite hilarious. The best part was when all of a sudden Nili started screaming and jumping around- she had a leach leaching its way on her hand. Being the good sister I am, I started smirking and moved to laughing my ass off seeing how funny the situation was. Eventually the leach was off and I paid my due- after peeling my rain sleeves, socks and shoes I realized one very brave leach nibbled on my leg. Oh well, who needs blood anyway?
On another note, we also visited an ashram a few days ago. Being an amazingly cynical person, I wasn't all that impressed, but we are thinking of sending my dad there for a while.
As mentioned we are now in Munar and are leaving tomorrow for Kochin- the cream on the top of our trip.
Shabbat shalom!

Bim bam bum, Trivandrum!

Or my way of saying I can't find a good enough title. Yesterday we arrived to the resort here in Poovar- Isolated Island very close to the beach- beautiful. We had a great time RELAXING seeing as we were exhausted. This morning we went back to Trivandrum (Thiruvanathapuram), went to see a Hindu temple, a museum, an old palace and the best part- the zoo. My uncle decided he has to see a tiger, therefor all of us went to the zoo. It was really funny, and we saw some really cool animals like monkeys, elephants, bambis (I know it's not their real name..), hippos (and a baby one too!) and- a tiger. We also saw a lion who I think looked exactly like Scar.
Funny thing for today- this time around we found a very interesting way to point out toilets for men and women. Here are Three examples: at the zoo there were photos of a man and a woman. At the resort there was a "He" and a"She" and today's winner- "King" and "Queen". Never in my life have I felt so royal as I did in the bathroom.
So far India is very cool- It is sort of what I pictured in my head. It is really cool that my aunt and uncle can communicate, and very useful too. But we all agreed that we must figure out how to do that head movement from side to side  (Nili and I have been practicing). Nurit and Shimon have been trying to teach us Mali Alam. Man, this language is a bitch . I can, however share with you the fact that my vocabulary is made up of animals mostly- I can say dog (patti), elephant (annah), frog (tavlachi), horse (something that sounds like Kudrah), and of course- monkey (korinechen). All pronounced very rolling-toung-ishly. I was so proud I could say monkey I sort of yelled it in the zoo. Yep, now a few Indian people think that I am weird. Well, I guess it isn't all that surprising.
I guess I'll call it a day- it's an annoying computer and due to the rain we had power cut off a few times (gees, shock)- won't risk it happening again.
photos to come.... sometime:-)

I almost forgot-

Feliz Compleano Rebecca Victoria Buenavida Benaderet!!!!!!

besitos (pichon)

from all of us


***that was suppose to be posted yesterday. don't know why that didn't happen. happy late birthday bruja!****

Kandy can do it- and you can do it to!

Quick note: I don't have much time to post for real, so I will edit and add at some point. but here is a recap for the time being:
Hooray, we made it to Sri Lanka. We arrived at 4:00- great time to start traveling... or not. On our first day we went to visit Kandy- a city in the center of Sri Lanka. The scenery was very similar to the the one I have seen last year in south east Asia- Coconuts, pineapples, trees etc.
We are a group of 8 people- my parents, little sister, my uncle Shimon and his wife Rachel, and my aunt Nurit and her husband Richi (and me. I guess). We visited a culture show which, I must say, wans't a huge hit BUT- and that goes to all of you who know Hebrew- we saw people HOLCHIM AL GECHALIM! now that was cool. Afterwards we went to see a temple and heard a lot about the Buddhism and the history of Sri Lanka by our tour guy Roy.
After basically crashing to bed we woke up and went to see an elephant orphanage. now that was just cool! We saw how they feed them with milk-the mommy elephant was standing near by and couldn't swallow- so it sort of seemed like she was dancing the disco, and sad as it was, it seemed kind of funny. then we went to see the herd going to the river. It was very nice, and we saw a blind elephant which was led by a guy and tied so he wouldn't get hurt, and a TRUMPELPIL- an Elephant with a missing leg. Maybe that is  a good time to point out the fact that one of nickname at home is "Elephant" since, well, I'm not all that graceful and should I say- super clumsy. So I had to take a picture with an actual elephant. I found it amusing..
later my dad and my sister insisted on riding elephants- and so we did. The official excuse my dad gave- "I'm doing it for my grandchildren". Yeah, right. It was fun though- Nili and I rode and elephant named "Nona". She was very cute and splashed quite a lot. we are thinking of adopting her and writing a musical about it. It'll be a hit for sure.
later we got back to Colombo and spent the (sort of )night there- we had to get up at 4:00 (awwwww) to get to out flight to whatever-way-they-spell-it-but-it-is-called Trivnadrum in India. We made all right- we all got a real kick out of seeing the head movement the Indians make. The cooler part is having Shimon and Nurit, my dad's sibling, communicating fluently in Mali-Alam, the language spoken in Kerala (the province in which we are staying). The ironic thing is that out of all Three my dad was the only one who actually remembers India from his childhood, but he doesn't speak Mali Alam all that well. If you ask me it sound more like people mumbling with their tongues.
Anyhow I have to leave now and hand the computer to my darling sister. will add more at some point.
Shavua tov!

India,here I come!

Man, it sure has been a while.... anyway, a lot has happened in the past year since I got back- got back home, started Uni, striked, worked, striked some more, lived and all the rest of the blah blah.
However, it so happens that I am leaving for Sri-Lanka and India in two days. Will be traveling with La Famillia for two weeks (and a day. horray fot that!). The master plan is as follows- 3 days in Sri Lanka, and then Kerala- a province in southern India, where my dad was born and grew up (what in outstanding coincidence). He is rather excited about the trip (and umm, so are the rest of us).. So I hope I'll find the time to update my traveling blog, but since it'll be rather short and very intense- I am not sure it'll happen.
so meanwhile- Happy Sukkot people!