Pokey

What do you think he would think of Asher's new toy....which quickly became NOT asher's new toy...

Pictures

from Copenhagen

http://www.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=38801727/a=23810748_10573307/t_=23810748

Holy Drunkeness in the Holy Land

Israel spent the past couple of days celebrating Purim.
I know what you're thinking - isnt it like a one day thing?
Right, not here.
There's the fast, the drinking, the costumes, the m'shalach manot.....
Monday night there was a concert at school - one of the students played music and other students joined in with him. They raised a lot of money for the bike ride that Karen is participating in in a few weeks.
After we FINALLY went to Shushan, THE gay club in Jerusalem.
It was a perfectly amazing drunken time.
Woke up hung over.
Laid around all day.
Last night, went to a bar, and ended up seeing half the HUC community.
And then decided to go back to Shushan
And had another wonderful drunken fiesta.

What a holiday.
And the majority of the city was wandering around drunk with us. CRAZY.

And tomorrow we have to go back to school.
Gosh I want more time off.

And some last thoughts...

Day 5 – is it a day?
We woke up at 645 – which was supposed to be 7 but the clock on the tv was wrong – and got ourselves ready. I still hadn’t decided if I was going to go to the airport with Sharon or not. She had a 10 am flight and I had a 230 pm flight. But I decided to go with her. So we stopped at 7-11 to get me one last blueberry muffin and then headed to the airport. Yes, I checked in over 6 hours early for my flight. We hung around the airport til Sharon had to go, and then I sat and did work and caught up on things. Sadly, I would have had to pay for the internet access so I wasn’t online. But I think that’s why I got so much accomplished!
Here’s what happened in my time alone. It began at 930. I found out that the wireless wasn’t free. I started reading 1 Kings for class. Got through it, started on 2 Kings. Got bored. Filled out an Ed form that I needed to do. Added to my to do list. Stared off in space. Listen to music. Finished off the relating of what we did in Copenhagen. Read the rest of 2 Kings. Stared off into space. Did a crossword puzzle. Finished said crossword puzzle. Stared off into space. Stared at Departures board. Listened to Americans playing guitar. Tapped foot to try to keep the beat. Stared off into space. Decided I had to pee. Decided I didn’t feel like getting up yet. Stared off into space. Decided that I should write this all out for the entertainment of my readers. Time check? 12:23. Listened to “My Humps” playing out of the American computer.
In all of this, a group of touring teenagers came by, drinking beer, and decided to sit next to me. They are annoying. A flight to Prague got cancelled and so the area Im in, the area where one can change a flight, got filled up with people trying to figure out how and why they would go home. This is like talking to someone, but not. Hmm. I went and killed the last bit of money that had been left remaining between me and Sharon…on candy, of course. Walked around, finally got onto my flight. I was in the 2nd row. Too bad that wasn’t first class! Quick hour and a half flight to Zurich – I read more Poisonwood. The guy next to me slept most of the way, but interestingly, he had hair on the tip of his nose. Now I know you’re thinking, ok a few hairs. But NO there was a PATCH of hair at the tip of his nose. Got to Zurich, found shopping. Wandered around. Decided that I was QUITE possible that I would soon go crazy, so I splurged and spent $10 on internet. And got to talk to people for awhile. Headed to the flight around 715…but first I picked up a shitload of chocolate for people . . . and then grabbed a sandwich and went to my gate. Turns out my Swiss Air flight is also an El Al flight. So we got the security check. And when I say the security check, I mean THE security check. Apparently I was a suspicious creature, who knew. Where do I go to school, why, can I show my original flight itinerary, who bought the ticket, from where, why is the credit card different, where are you in Israel, where in Jerusalem, why are you studying there, what were you doing in Copenhagen….on and on and on. A second guy came over to ask more. Yes – to me, a poor little student. But I told the first guy, when he was finally letting me go, that im happy that at least they do it. Sucks that it was me, but hey, they had no clue who I was or what my intensions were….In the end, that first guy asked, informally and with my permission, what exactly I was doing – like why I would want this degree. He asked, to be a teacher? And I said, well you don’t get it as an Israeli, but Judaism is different in Israel – and in the states we have to work for it. Also he asked what I thought of Jerusalem – I told him it sucked to try to learn the language – though I did talk to them in Hebrew for a few minutes to prove that I knew the language….and that the religious people look down on me and that sucks. It was interesting. I felt like they should have known I was safe when I took out my Steve’s Packs Jerusalem wallet. I mean, how much more does that scream, LOSER? 8 pm…waiting at the gate. Determined to stay up for dinner, but SO exhausted. This has been a long ass day of traveling….sat next to an Israeli couple, so I got to speak some Hebrew. They showed The Family Stone, which ive seen and had no desire to see again…so I read, did a crossword puzzle, spaced out. Could barely fall asleep – dozed off for about an hour and then stared more. Talked some more Hebrew with the lady next to me. We landed around 2 am, and I breezed through, got money ( I was out of shekels – that was its own balagan!) and got on a sheirut to Jerusalem by 230 or so. My sheirut had 8 other people. A group of 5 that had been in Kiev – with the style of frummies….2 parents, a friend, and two kids – who were nice and loud. And then two separate frum couples. Yes, I stuck out like a SORE thumb. Luckily there were only a few stops because they were all in groups (ive been in sheiruts where each person gets their own drop off…) so it was a quick ride. Two groups on the outskirts of the city…one in mea sheirim, and one in the Old City. And then finally – just me, alone in the sheirut. In the states it would have felt really sketchy…but for some reason it felt ok. We had a whole conversation about how I had just seen a tour of the city! He said that’s worth it to live in Rechavia (I was going back to Karen’s place). We talked about the history of some of the streets and he told me some pretty interesting stuff. It was really cool – another one of those interesting Israel experiences.
Got into Karen’s place. At first our watchdog Asher wuffed a little, hearing someone…and then I said “Asher it’s me” and he was reallllllly excited. To the extent that he peed on the bed in excitement. How cute is that? I was WIDE awake which Asher enjoyed, Karen did not. I got a whole 3 hours of sleep, a shower, a bowl of cereal, and off to school.
That was fun. Chag Sameach – enjoy Purim, remember – get so drunk that you don’t know who is good and who is bad J

Copenhagen: Probably the Best Country in the World

Done in the hotel and in the airport. I apologize for typos, misspellings, blattant exaggerations, and any other things that could offend the reader.
Some additions by Sharon
Sharon will have the pictures up, some day.

Day 1 – Tuesday/Wednesday
Where to begin…a sheirut picked me up at 2 am. Took me to the airport – I dosed off for awhile in there. Got to the airport, given the second degree by some Lufthansa lady. Lady, it’s 3 am. I have no desire to do this. Let me sleep! Checked in, played on the Ben Gurion Wireless for awhile, talking to people in the states – I mean, it WAS 4 am at that point. Sat next to an old lady on the flight who asked me if I was a Jewish person. And then asked if Hebrew is spoken in any other county, if Hebrew is the language of Israel, and if all Jews speak Hebrew. NICE, go back to Tennessee. And then I slept through take off (that’s a rare thing for me!) and slept through most of the flight – but awoke for breakfast! French toast! Yay! Arrived to Frankfort and raced through the airport. As they dropped us off at one end, I had to be at the other, and in between I had to go through passport control, get re-scanned for security, and work my way to the plane. Gave myself a second to look in a store to see if I could buy grandma or Karen something German – as they were both born there. No luck. Continued on toward the plane. Which was a tiny one. Proceeded to fall asleep again. Rough life. It was nice meeting you Germany – perhaps we’ll meet again sometime.
Got into Copenhagen and everyone was speaking some language that sounded like they had something stuck in their throat. CLEAR YOUR THROATS!
I had to wait about 45 minutes for Sharon’s flight to arrive. I was hungry. Luckily my grandmother had just sent me an infamous dotty card which had contained American currency, and I happened to have it on me. So I made it Danish money and got a candy bar. It was yum. Sharon arrived and we began our trek to the hotel. We were amazed that it was ours – absolutely gorgeous. Two thumbs up to the parental units. I had the easier trip, because I only had a one hour time difference. Sharon was a little groggy but determined to stay up. So we got ourselves changed and moved on out to taking a walking tour off the Stroeget (aka stroke-it) – Ben Yehuda, 5th Ave, Champs Elysee, Picadilly Circus – that type of place. All the shops, all the tourist stuff, very cool. On our way, we got a hot dog. Now this wasn’t just any kind of hot dog. No no. this was a super cool one – it was a hollowed bun with one end closed…and they put mustard (or anything) in first, then slide the hot dog in. Thus the hot dog is fully covered and the bun holds it in place. Perfection!
In the evening there was free entry into the Dansk Design Center. It was something Sharon had been interested in doing, and while I wasn’t completely sure what it was, figured, free is free. The exhibit was called “Honey I’m home” and looked at the changing face of the household and ways to simplify and change it. It was very interesting – but we were both very happy that it had been free! We tooled around the gift shop and Sharon bought a couple of things.
Went to supermarket because we felt like we needed dinner…so we had a traditional Fraade vacation dinner – brie and crackers. Just what we needed. And then we passed out. For 12 hours. Note: Sharon is a dumb butt

Day 2 – Thursday
We finally got ourselves up and moving by 10 … we were clearly two very tired girls. We had decided that, while we knew it was silly, the best time to go to the Carlsburg Brewery would be in the morning – because it closed too early for us. So we trekked on over to the brewery. It was a brisk walk but very nice. At the entrance to the area there is an “Elephant Bridge” which we took many pictures of. One of the elephants had a swatstika on it – clearly from before any other significance….The brewery was very cool. We got to see their collection of thousands of bottles, old ads, the brewing process, and many parts of the original building. We also got to read a bit about the history of Carlsburg itself. The name comes from the son of the owner – Carl Jacobson. And “burg” means “hill.” Carl did have some control over the company for awhile. At some point they merged with Tuborg. And now we have beer. They keep to the general process that has existed for so many years. We had a field day in the gift shop. We bought presents for people – and for ourselves! We also got to send video emails to some people from the e-mail section of the tour.
Afterwards, we headed over to Christiania which is basically, as the tour books describe, a 60s commune. It was started in the 1970s They are their own self-existing town – to the extent that there is a sign on your way out that says “You are now entering the EU.” There are shops all over to buy weed – as it is legal there. They do have signs though that say “Say NO to hard drugs.” Graffiti is legal so there are great decorations through the town. However, photography is not allowed. So we have nuttin to show. Sorry.
On our way back we passed by a bakery and decided to stop in. We proceeded to consume some of the most marvelous baked goods ever. We bought a Danish with a chocolate center, a chocolate ball with coconut on the outside filled with cream on the inside….and then a muffin and a cookie for later (I cant get good blueberry muffins in Israel, just packaged ones, so I was craving muffins - - I ate them throughout the week in Copenhagen).
We stopped in Build A Bear to see what it was like there…and they have a whole section of area specific costumes. We could buy t-shirts or costumes that pertains to Copenhagen – a mermaid even!
Came back to the hotel and relaxed for a little while. We found random free stolen internet so we got to check in with the world.
And then accidentally fell asleep. Oops. Is this a theme?

Day 3 - Friday
We were determined to get up and start our day early …
We were out the door by 9:30, went to 7-11 for breakfast, and got onto the train up to Helsinger. It was about 40 minutes on the train and beautiful. We got to see some off the countryside, plus we got to eat breakfast – always fun! Clearly we continued our tradition of not knowing where we had to go or what we had to do – we just knew that the castle didn’t open til 11 - - and we got there at 1045! We found signs and ended up at a big “i” – information! A very nice woman gave us a map of the town and we got some more information on the area. We began the freezing trek up to the castle. On the way we saw some great “clean up after your dog” signs, with plastic baggies available. Clearly they try hard to ensure that the area stays clean! We headed over to the castle – which was Shakespeare’s inspiration for Hamlet, though he had never been. Very nice place – overlooks to Sweden (we could have taken a ferry over to Sweden, didn’t – apparently there’s a workforce that lives in Sweden but comes to Denmark to work – the cost of living is less there…). Much of the castle had been burn down by a fire in the 1600s but they replicated stuff. We got to see the casemates – the safe area – of where they could hide for protection. Pretty impressive cave type set up with built in bins to put food. They could live down there for up to 6 weeks if necessary . . . Headed back down into town. Wondered around the town, which is known for its shops. And by shops we mean, it’s a maze of a mall all outside and not actually a mall but it has that many stores. We wondered, got lost, found someplace to eat. Had our first eating at a restaurant experience. Which had some confusion. Menu – not English – almost ordered ham – I got a club sandwich, Sharon got a brie sandwich. But we had to order at the register – and she laughed when I asked if we had to come back up to get the food. Oops. And you don’t tip here. That’s just weird. Apparently they make good money waiting tables. More on that later. We hopped aboard the 388 bus to Louisiana. No silly, not in the states. To the museum! 10 minute bus ride, 2 minute walk – museum! Very nice, small museum. We saw an exhibit on the photographer Brassai. And some other stuff around the museum, including an exhibit on George Blistik. There was a children’s section where the kids could replicate styles of the artists. We went in to visit – it was pretty neat to see how much there was – supplies, etc. I commented to Sharon that I would love to know who their financial support is…amazing. Went to the gift shop, clearly…Sharon bought the poster of the exhibit we saw, and in conversation with the employee, received another exhibit poster for free (the Blistik one…so we went back to see his exhibit which we’d missed due to a confusing layout of the museum)! He was from Lebanon and agreed with me how cold it can be here! We left, walked to the train station, got tickets back to Copenhagen. We were both getting worn out (and Sharon was becoming a grumpy old woman!) so we decided to relax for a little bit – watched some 7th Heaven on tv…and then headed out to dinner. We went to a restaurant called Mama Rosa – it’s a mix of everything , but most importantly, MEXICAN! We had nachos, and Sharon had a daiquiri (which she’s pretty sure was non-alcoholic), and we each had burritos for dinner. Now ill be honest, ive had better – but let’s also be honest, it was my first burrito in, what, over four months….so it was good. Real good. I was happy. And full. BUT to make a point to OUR Mama, we had to go to the Hard Rock Café down the street from our hotel – for dessert. We had to wait, so we went into the gift shop. We had picked up “free gift” cards along the way, so we figured we see what we could get…the free gift? A really cool Hard Rock Shaker in the shape of a guitar (which Sharon obnoxiously decided she couldn’t fit in her suitcase and left in the hotel). Sharon saw a shirt she thought was cute so she got it – I picked something up for someone, but cant say what or who just in case she actually reads this. It’s a surprise! We got into a conversation with the lady who worked in the shop. She was Swedish and French, lived outside of Copenhagen…got to hear about life. How they all speak many languages, pay is pretty good in Denmark so the wait staff doesn’t get tips so they don’t work hard because they don’t care about appeasing the customer, and about how peaceful it really is here. Pretty interesting. I asked her why they all speak English so well – her reason? The TV programs aren’t dubbed in Denmark (as opposed to France) – so they hear the English on tv…And then we got called over to our seats – and ordered a spectacular Hot Fudge Brownie Sundae to split. It came with one spoon, so I asked for a second – and then asked someone else for a second. Never got that spoon. Hmph.
Came back to the hotel, sleep.

Day 4
As I was finally on a more normal sleep schedule, I woke up early this morning. I waited awhile to wake Sharon up. I finally got her up and she proclaimed: You make doodies and eat them. Good morning. Stopped at 7-11 for breakfast again, and got onto the train up to Roskilde. We wandered our way over (asking for directions of course) to the Vikingeskibshallen (Viking Ship Museum). TOO cool. First off, Sharon was on a search for her Viking husband. I just wanted to see Vikings. We got to watch a movie and learned that Viking means “warrior of the sea.” There was an extensive Viking population in that area years before. However they went bye bye. However, an archiologist found 5 ships underwater – and did an excavation to get them out. So the museum has their founds. Very neat. Even cooler, they had ships we could play on, with costumes that we could dress up in to look like we were living in the Viking times (16th-18th centuries if I remember correctly?). We came back to Copenhagen, alas, Sharon had not found her husband. Bummer. We found a stud on our way to our next attraction, though. He was preaching to us about the US and how Bush sucks. We were like, duh, we know. And then he talked to us forever about it. Luckily I had my hot dog to entertain me through it. We went into H.C. Anderson’s Wonderful World. It was attached to Ripleys Believe it or Not and the Guiness Book of World Records Museum. Obviously, some find quality stuff….I think the museum was overpriced, but it was cute. It was a little tour of the life of Anderson and some of the stories, told by caricatures that could move and stuff. I was scared at parts. But that’s me.
We did some more shopping afterwards, painfully trying to find SOMETHING for our grandmother, and not liking ANY of the t-shirts. But we finally found something that we both liked. And we got some more stuff for ourselves. And spend more money obviously.
We went back so Sharon could pack and we could relax. We fell asleep for a little while and then tried to go to a restaurant with Danish food, but realized as we looked at their menu that we wouldn’t eat anything there! There was pork and beef and lots of meats, and neither of us would have eaten enough to make it worth the money. And so we went to The Irish Rover , a pub with food. And ate a meal and drank some beer and just relaxed. Returned home, passed out.

Michael

Me: I dont think even Copenhagians know where Copenhagen is

Michael: "I have to be honest - - I do know where it is. But only because of 'Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego' - the game, not the TV show"

Leaving in a week....