Reporting from Israel: December 10

We rose early in the morning to rent our car and began our journey north to Haifa (the city where I grew up in). It is Hanukah this week, and we saw many cars with a Menorah, (candelabra) mounted on their roof, broadcasting the holiday message.

(Menorah on a moving car)

It only took me several minutes to adjust to the Israeli driving style. It is road rage on steroids here. If you are familiar with the chicken game, it is naturally played here by the majority of drivers. When drivers put on their left turn signals, for example, it is their way of saying “watch it buddy, I am pulling to the left lane whether you like it or not.” I guess I felt back at home thanks to my early driving training when growing up in Israel, which also helped make the drive to Haifa take less than two hours.

(Haifa Bay)

We first visited one of my wife and daughter’s favorite clothing stores – Flowers, located at the top of the Carmel mountain.

(My daughter, Sharon, trying on an outfit at Flowers)

We then continued to visit my father who is at an independent living facility in the city of Naharia, located by the Mediterranean Sea and 40 minutes north of Haifa. It is a beautiful and growing city which unfortunately was in the news last year when it was bombed quite heavily with Haifa during the war with Lebanon. As we were entering the city, I noticed the welcome sign. In Hebrew it said: “The city for those who love life” yet in English it was translated to say: “The city for fun lovers.” Since I moved to the U.S. 29 years ago, and in my quest to constantly improve my language, I am always fascinated with colloquialism. I got to reflect on some of the “cute” language mistakes I make at times and forgave the one who wrote the sign.

Great visit with my Dad and we even got to entertain him and his friends, the wiser generation, singing some songs of Chanukah. We immediately gained new friends and fans, as I realized how easy it is to impress the older generation when you simply give them love combined with music.

(Me, my Dad and my wife)