At last, we too have established our presence in the blogosphere :-)
We are leaving Pittsburgh in three weeks, and embarking on a three month adventure in the Western United States. In early September, we are returning to Israel, to open the next chapter of our life in Haifa. We hope to use this space to keep in touch with all the important people in our lives!
Anat, Giora, Noga, Hadas & Maayan
Thursday, May 29
Wednesday, February 20
Last winter in Pittsburgh
It's been almost six months since I last wrote here, and I'm properly ashamed of myself. Let's start fixing that. The last few months were extremely busy for me, and the coming ones are expected to be even denser. To begin with, as most of you already know, we will be returning to Israel this summer. Anat has accepted a tenure-track position with Haifa University, and we're about to wrap up the wonderful period of life we've been spending in Pittsburgh.
As I previously wrote, I have mixed feelings about our decision to leave the US, but at this point in time it's a done deal. We were fortunate to remotely rent an apartment in Haifa in advance (Ramat-Begin neighborhood, not far from the university); Noga, Hadas and Maayan are already registered to school and day care, and I've started looking into employment options, Google Haifa being the natural first candidate. We plan on leaving Pittsburgh mid-June, and before that we have several planned trips (pleasure and business), grandparents' visits, and lots and lots of errands to run, inevitable when moving one's life across the ocean.
We leave here mid-June, but will first be heading west, to spend some 3 months traveling, hiking and camping in the western parts of the US. Our current plan is to start from the many national parks in Utah, Arizona & Colorado (Zion, Bryce, Arches and Grand-Canyon to name a few); then drive up north to Wyoming (Yellowstone, Grand Teton); cut westbound through Idaho to Oregon and spend a big chunk of time there (e.g. Crater Lake); drive southward to California (Yosemite, Kings Canyon, but skipping southern California) and conclude in the San Francisco bay area, where we have dear friends and family. The only finalized detail at this point is our flight back to Israel from San-Francisco on September 4th. Transition points in life are certainly the best opportunity to take such long vacations, and judging by our 2 months in New Zealand "on the way" to the US, we're gonna have the time of our life! I'm so very excited!! I look forward to spending time with Anat and the girls around beautiful lakes, on trails in the forest, on mountain tops and around camp-fires in the evenings.
Future plans aside, there is still a lot going on in the present tense. The main contributor to my hectic schedule is my relatively new job. Google is a unique employer, and a notable aspect is the unusual professional level of its employees. I am surrounded by many people who are simply better software engineers than I am, in every reasonable measure. This was a new and not at all pleasant experience for me. Don't get me wrong – it's not that I was the best in every workplace to date. Far from it. But it'd be fair to say I was used to feeling that I belonged to the upper half of the professionals around me. In Google, I need to do my very best and still see many that are plainly better. There are also some technical reasons in the Google environment that make such differences more visible, but I'll skip the details.
You might be saying that it's terrific, being among people from whom I can learn so much. In theory, I strongly agree. But as many smart people said - in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not... That is, getting used to such a new environment was, and still is, a challenge for me. The fact that I am very slow when starting in new workplaces only made things worse. All in all, I believe this is a very important experience, at a deeper level, and I try to remind myself of that when things are down. I can certainly say that things have significantly improved over the last 3 months, but this is not to say that everything is rosy. I should clarify, that despite the above I still think Google is superior as an employer for me comparing to almost any other alternative. Talking about Google's advantages, I can mention the company-funded ski trip in Vermont next week. Tough life...
Enough with work, back to the really important stuff. Though my workload was increased, I'm very careful not to reach a point where I don't get to spend enough time with the girls. This is, and probably will always be, the ultimate highest priority. It feels like Maayan grew up amazingly fast and all of a sudden we have 3 girls running around. No longer 2 girls and a baby. Even in objective measures, her development was astonishingly quick – she started walking before turning 10 months and is acting regularly as if she was much older than her meager one year. I guess the catching up with older siblings isn't a myth. She's unbelievably cute, fairly stubborn and possesses an exceptional talent of wreaking havoc. Her favorite activity is invading cabinets and dressers and quickly removing their content and transforming it into one big pile. It's hard to express in words how joyful she is – with her natural happiness, her meaningful facial expressions, her outstanding ability to understand what's being said to her (and ignore it outright if it happens to be a request to cease mess-creating activities). Her rolling laughter when I tickle her between her toes at bath time would leave anyone with a big smile.
Equally satisfying is seeing Noga and Hadas treating her with the sort of kindness reserved to siblings. Although Maayan tends to protest every time a parent is hugging or cuddling one of her sisters, pushing them aside as forcefully as she can, both Noga and Hadas are amazing sisters to her. It's not unusual to see Noga feeding her from a bottle, or Hadas playing hide-and-seek with her, laughter and screams of joy filling the house. In general, Noga and Hadas are as marvelous as ever (only bigger and more mature all the time). We're lucky that they are still young enough to accept hugs, kisses and cuddling willingly, while already old enough for very interesting discussions and conversations. I'll spare the details, as I'm already beyond reasonable length for this post.
I'll just add that there are plenty of new photos (and soon some videos as well) on our web site - http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora
Hope all is well with all of you,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
As I previously wrote, I have mixed feelings about our decision to leave the US, but at this point in time it's a done deal. We were fortunate to remotely rent an apartment in Haifa in advance (Ramat-Begin neighborhood, not far from the university); Noga, Hadas and Maayan are already registered to school and day care, and I've started looking into employment options, Google Haifa being the natural first candidate. We plan on leaving Pittsburgh mid-June, and before that we have several planned trips (pleasure and business), grandparents' visits, and lots and lots of errands to run, inevitable when moving one's life across the ocean.
We leave here mid-June, but will first be heading west, to spend some 3 months traveling, hiking and camping in the western parts of the US. Our current plan is to start from the many national parks in Utah, Arizona & Colorado (Zion, Bryce, Arches and Grand-Canyon to name a few); then drive up north to Wyoming (Yellowstone, Grand Teton); cut westbound through Idaho to Oregon and spend a big chunk of time there (e.g. Crater Lake); drive southward to California (Yosemite, Kings Canyon, but skipping southern California) and conclude in the San Francisco bay area, where we have dear friends and family. The only finalized detail at this point is our flight back to Israel from San-Francisco on September 4th. Transition points in life are certainly the best opportunity to take such long vacations, and judging by our 2 months in New Zealand "on the way" to the US, we're gonna have the time of our life! I'm so very excited!! I look forward to spending time with Anat and the girls around beautiful lakes, on trails in the forest, on mountain tops and around camp-fires in the evenings.
Future plans aside, there is still a lot going on in the present tense. The main contributor to my hectic schedule is my relatively new job. Google is a unique employer, and a notable aspect is the unusual professional level of its employees. I am surrounded by many people who are simply better software engineers than I am, in every reasonable measure. This was a new and not at all pleasant experience for me. Don't get me wrong – it's not that I was the best in every workplace to date. Far from it. But it'd be fair to say I was used to feeling that I belonged to the upper half of the professionals around me. In Google, I need to do my very best and still see many that are plainly better. There are also some technical reasons in the Google environment that make such differences more visible, but I'll skip the details.
You might be saying that it's terrific, being among people from whom I can learn so much. In theory, I strongly agree. But as many smart people said - in theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not... That is, getting used to such a new environment was, and still is, a challenge for me. The fact that I am very slow when starting in new workplaces only made things worse. All in all, I believe this is a very important experience, at a deeper level, and I try to remind myself of that when things are down. I can certainly say that things have significantly improved over the last 3 months, but this is not to say that everything is rosy. I should clarify, that despite the above I still think Google is superior as an employer for me comparing to almost any other alternative. Talking about Google's advantages, I can mention the company-funded ski trip in Vermont next week. Tough life...
Enough with work, back to the really important stuff. Though my workload was increased, I'm very careful not to reach a point where I don't get to spend enough time with the girls. This is, and probably will always be, the ultimate highest priority. It feels like Maayan grew up amazingly fast and all of a sudden we have 3 girls running around. No longer 2 girls and a baby. Even in objective measures, her development was astonishingly quick – she started walking before turning 10 months and is acting regularly as if she was much older than her meager one year. I guess the catching up with older siblings isn't a myth. She's unbelievably cute, fairly stubborn and possesses an exceptional talent of wreaking havoc. Her favorite activity is invading cabinets and dressers and quickly removing their content and transforming it into one big pile. It's hard to express in words how joyful she is – with her natural happiness, her meaningful facial expressions, her outstanding ability to understand what's being said to her (and ignore it outright if it happens to be a request to cease mess-creating activities). Her rolling laughter when I tickle her between her toes at bath time would leave anyone with a big smile.
Equally satisfying is seeing Noga and Hadas treating her with the sort of kindness reserved to siblings. Although Maayan tends to protest every time a parent is hugging or cuddling one of her sisters, pushing them aside as forcefully as she can, both Noga and Hadas are amazing sisters to her. It's not unusual to see Noga feeding her from a bottle, or Hadas playing hide-and-seek with her, laughter and screams of joy filling the house. In general, Noga and Hadas are as marvelous as ever (only bigger and more mature all the time). We're lucky that they are still young enough to accept hugs, kisses and cuddling willingly, while already old enough for very interesting discussions and conversations. I'll spare the details, as I'm already beyond reasonable length for this post.
I'll just add that there are plenty of new photos (and soon some videos as well) on our web site - http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora
Hope all is well with all of you,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
Monday, September 3
Becoming a Googler!
This week I became a Googler! Or, more precisely, a Noogler (New Googler in the company jargon). As many of you know, I recently terminated my employment with Vocollect in order to start working for Google. As an aside, I should mention a notable difference between the Israeli high-tech market and the American one. While in Israel leaving a company gets you many "you traitor!"-like responses, the basic attitude in the US is that people normally move on after some time. For the most part, the response I got at Vocollect was "Congratulations!", which is a tribute to the company and my past colleagues there.
Anyway, I spent my first week at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. And what a fascinating week it was! I assume each and every one of you has heard of Google, though I'm not sure how familiar you are with the details. Google was and is growing at an astounding pace. Not even a decade since it was founded, the company has well over 10,000 employees and is considered one of the major players in the technology industry. In each of the past 2 quarters Google recruited more than 1500(!) Nooglers, bringing the rate to well over a hundred new employees per week. And the week I joined was no different from any other. On the down side, it almost felt like enlisting in the army again. On the up side, the luxurious "service" conditions more than made up for it ;-)
Google is considered by many the best employer in the US, in terms of employee satisfaction. I can fully understand why after a week in the Googleplex. The Mountain View campus is ENORMOUS! It's comprised of numerous not-very-tall-but-fairly-fancy buildings, and spans a huge area. To allow easy transportation between buildings if one prefers not to walk, there are free bikes and scooters all over the place. Equipment such as laptops and desktops is top of the line. Generally speaking, the attitude is that as an employee you can have whatever will make you happier and more productive, and then some. In Mountain View, the company provides day-care for employees' kids, on-site doctors, massages, free laundry and more. But the most notable perk has to do with food. All employees have a constant free supply of food. The campus hosts more than 10 gourmet restaurants, and you can dine free of charge – breakfast, lunch and dinner. That easily explains the "Google 15" rule, according to which a Noogler gains 15 pounds (circa 7 kg) within a short amount of time. I must say that I was quite overwhelmed by this wealth, and made a big effort to beat the statistics. Not sure if I succeeded...
In terms of organizational behavior and culture, Google is like nothing else. It'd be fair to say that it's a big corporation that sticks to its start-up mentality. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. It's just highly unusual. One central characteristic is the striking difference between the secrecy outwards and the total openness internally. Once you've passed the recruiting process and joined the company, pretty much everything is at your fingertips (the main exception is information about users, for privacy reasons). The level of access to information is really overwhelming, and my main task in the first few weeks will be to start digesting the relevant information and more importantly learning to ignore or defer irrelevant information. It is no secret that this is not one of my strengths, but I'll have to learn. I simply have no choice, and I hope that working in the much-smaller Pittsburgh office will also make it somewhat easier.
Technologically, there is so much going on, and so much cutting-edge fascinating technology being developed inside Google. In some unexplainable way, despite the somewhat chaotic feeling, the resulting technology and innovations are jaw-dropping. And even more importantly, I'm going to be surrounded by many brilliant engineers, from whom I can learn so much from. Heaven! So, I truly hope that the coming months will live up to my expectations. I'll conclude here, as I'm on board an airplane, and the battery in my shiny new Mac laptop is running low. By the way, this trip was my first kidless flight in more than 4 years! A refreshing change by itself...
Hugs and kisses,
Giora
PS: To avoid total lack of new updates about the girls, I'll simply substitute the verbal blabbing with a Picasa link, where you can find numerous photos, including recent ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora
Anyway, I spent my first week at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. And what a fascinating week it was! I assume each and every one of you has heard of Google, though I'm not sure how familiar you are with the details. Google was and is growing at an astounding pace. Not even a decade since it was founded, the company has well over 10,000 employees and is considered one of the major players in the technology industry. In each of the past 2 quarters Google recruited more than 1500(!) Nooglers, bringing the rate to well over a hundred new employees per week. And the week I joined was no different from any other. On the down side, it almost felt like enlisting in the army again. On the up side, the luxurious "service" conditions more than made up for it ;-)
Google is considered by many the best employer in the US, in terms of employee satisfaction. I can fully understand why after a week in the Googleplex. The Mountain View campus is ENORMOUS! It's comprised of numerous not-very-tall-but-fairly-fancy buildings, and spans a huge area. To allow easy transportation between buildings if one prefers not to walk, there are free bikes and scooters all over the place. Equipment such as laptops and desktops is top of the line. Generally speaking, the attitude is that as an employee you can have whatever will make you happier and more productive, and then some. In Mountain View, the company provides day-care for employees' kids, on-site doctors, massages, free laundry and more. But the most notable perk has to do with food. All employees have a constant free supply of food. The campus hosts more than 10 gourmet restaurants, and you can dine free of charge – breakfast, lunch and dinner. That easily explains the "Google 15" rule, according to which a Noogler gains 15 pounds (circa 7 kg) within a short amount of time. I must say that I was quite overwhelmed by this wealth, and made a big effort to beat the statistics. Not sure if I succeeded...
In terms of organizational behavior and culture, Google is like nothing else. It'd be fair to say that it's a big corporation that sticks to its start-up mentality. And don't get me wrong, I'm all for it. It's just highly unusual. One central characteristic is the striking difference between the secrecy outwards and the total openness internally. Once you've passed the recruiting process and joined the company, pretty much everything is at your fingertips (the main exception is information about users, for privacy reasons). The level of access to information is really overwhelming, and my main task in the first few weeks will be to start digesting the relevant information and more importantly learning to ignore or defer irrelevant information. It is no secret that this is not one of my strengths, but I'll have to learn. I simply have no choice, and I hope that working in the much-smaller Pittsburgh office will also make it somewhat easier.
Technologically, there is so much going on, and so much cutting-edge fascinating technology being developed inside Google. In some unexplainable way, despite the somewhat chaotic feeling, the resulting technology and innovations are jaw-dropping. And even more importantly, I'm going to be surrounded by many brilliant engineers, from whom I can learn so much from. Heaven! So, I truly hope that the coming months will live up to my expectations. I'll conclude here, as I'm on board an airplane, and the battery in my shiny new Mac laptop is running low. By the way, this trip was my first kidless flight in more than 4 years! A refreshing change by itself...
Hugs and kisses,
Giora
PS: To avoid total lack of new updates about the girls, I'll simply substitute the verbal blabbing with a Picasa link, where you can find numerous photos, including recent ones: http://picasaweb.google.com/AnatGiora
Tuesday, May 8
The wonders of Paternity leave (and - Israel, here we come for a visit!)
It's been a while since I last wrote about what's going on with us in Pittsburgh. And there's a LOT to tell! Indeed, we're going to Israel tomorrow, and we'll get to see many of you. However, chances are that we won't have the time to verbally cover all the aspects with each of you, so I figured a posting might be a good idea.
All in all, the past few months were fairly hectic on our end, owing to several different things. For one thing, as you all know, baby Maayan joined our family 3 months ago. But that's not the main reason. The main cause of our recent hectic schedule was that all of a sudden, very unexpectedly, Anat found herself preparing a job talk for Haifa university, which she's going to give in May during our visit to Israel.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the specifics of the academic world, I'll say that getting your first job as a faculty member is probably the most challenging stage in an academic career. This is true worldwide, but is terribly emphasized in the current reality in Israel. The Israeli academia is burdened with extreme budgetary difficulties across the board, and every position that opens attracts dozens of candidates, all of whom are highly qualified.
Thus, although Anat's original plan was to start looking for a job in the coming fall, when a job search was announced in Haifa, there was no question that she can't let the opportunity pass. And whereas preparing a job talk is a stressful task no matter what, doing so in the middle of a maternity leave and with a newborn at home is virtually insane. But as said above, there wasn't really a choice here.
Fortunately, Maayan turned out to be a magnificent baby, and taking care of her is much easier than we originally anticipated. As opposed to our situations in the past with Noga and Hadas, I had to get back to work full-time a few days after the birth. And as opposed to the previous two daughters, we had no family around to help. And yet, in some strange and inexplicable way, we both feel very strongly that this time was much easier for us.
I know you'll suspect that I'm biased, but I don't care. I'll still say that Maayan is the cutest baby in the world. She does have her fussy days from time to time, like every baby, but typically she's very alert, extremely responsive, good-natured and full of smiles. She's already sleeping at night pretty regularly (typically 8:30 pm until 6:30 am), allowing her parents the much-needed rest and sleep. I usually say that I'd rather start with a 1-year old baby, but with Maayan most days are very enjoyable now as well. Humming, grrrring and hooooooing to her usually gets you conversation-like sounds in return. Smiling at her almost always grants you a wide smile. Her beautiful eyes, wide-open, are constantly looking around and studying her surroundings. Not to mention her cheek smooshed against my chest when she's sleeping on me in her BabyBjorn,or her tiny fingers unknowingly drumming on my shoulder when she's being fed.
In general, it'd be fair to say that right now I'm enjoying one of the best and happiest times I've ever had. Anat has completed her 12-week maternity leave, and I have been off work for more than a week already and am officially on paternity leave. For 6 weeks (4 of them in Israel) I'm going to be completely detached from my workplace, dedicating all my time and energy to my lovely daughters. And that's the most enjoyable and rewarding thing to be doing, in my opinion.
The weather is also cooperating wonderfully, and for the past two weeks we're having very non-Pittsburgh days, with blue skies, sunshine and perfect temperatures. Most of my time is spent walking around the neighborhood with Maayan in her stroller, absorbing the sun while drinking coffee, visiting Hadas at daycare and Noga at school and spending a lot of time with the three of them. If there wasn't that annoying need for my salary, I would have joyfully adopted this lifestyle for good ;-)
Hadas and Noga definitely had the expected post-family-expansion difficulties, each in her own way and time. However, we're long past these episodes by now, and they're both back to normal - extremely happy and lively girls, ever developing and evolving, fascinating company and most importantly true friends for each other. Hadas grew up so much and has become so mature, that it's sometimes hard for me to believe. She's still full of mischief and she has the inherent tendency not to obey, but I think this is a big part of her charm. Noga is simply blossoming at school, where she had a fantastic year. She is now a book worm just like her mother, reading full length books any time she can. Sometimes she's so absorbed in a book that it's really difficult to draw her attention...
Generally speaking, the recent developments with Anat's career, namely the (currently remote) possibility that she'll be offered a job in Israel, forced me to think where I want to live the rest of my life. The relevant and practical options are, naturally, the US and Israel. That's a topic for a much longer and detailed discussion, for which I don't have the time right now, but the bottom line is that I can't yet decisively answer this question, even to myself. I feel that the answer, at least for me, is not as obvious as it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. But, again, this is a subject for a separate posting, and I need to start the morning routine and get the girls organized for their last school day before going to Israel.
Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!!
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora (this list became longer, ha?! ;-)
All in all, the past few months were fairly hectic on our end, owing to several different things. For one thing, as you all know, baby Maayan joined our family 3 months ago. But that's not the main reason. The main cause of our recent hectic schedule was that all of a sudden, very unexpectedly, Anat found herself preparing a job talk for Haifa university, which she's going to give in May during our visit to Israel.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the specifics of the academic world, I'll say that getting your first job as a faculty member is probably the most challenging stage in an academic career. This is true worldwide, but is terribly emphasized in the current reality in Israel. The Israeli academia is burdened with extreme budgetary difficulties across the board, and every position that opens attracts dozens of candidates, all of whom are highly qualified.
Thus, although Anat's original plan was to start looking for a job in the coming fall, when a job search was announced in Haifa, there was no question that she can't let the opportunity pass. And whereas preparing a job talk is a stressful task no matter what, doing so in the middle of a maternity leave and with a newborn at home is virtually insane. But as said above, there wasn't really a choice here.
Fortunately, Maayan turned out to be a magnificent baby, and taking care of her is much easier than we originally anticipated. As opposed to our situations in the past with Noga and Hadas, I had to get back to work full-time a few days after the birth. And as opposed to the previous two daughters, we had no family around to help. And yet, in some strange and inexplicable way, we both feel very strongly that this time was much easier for us.
I know you'll suspect that I'm biased, but I don't care. I'll still say that Maayan is the cutest baby in the world. She does have her fussy days from time to time, like every baby, but typically she's very alert, extremely responsive, good-natured and full of smiles. She's already sleeping at night pretty regularly (typically 8:30 pm until 6:30 am), allowing her parents the much-needed rest and sleep. I usually say that I'd rather start with a 1-year old baby, but with Maayan most days are very enjoyable now as well. Humming, grrrring and hooooooing to her usually gets you conversation-like sounds in return. Smiling at her almost always grants you a wide smile. Her beautiful eyes, wide-open, are constantly looking around and studying her surroundings. Not to mention her cheek smooshed against my chest when she's sleeping on me in her BabyBjorn,or her tiny fingers unknowingly drumming on my shoulder when she's being fed.
In general, it'd be fair to say that right now I'm enjoying one of the best and happiest times I've ever had. Anat has completed her 12-week maternity leave, and I have been off work for more than a week already and am officially on paternity leave. For 6 weeks (4 of them in Israel) I'm going to be completely detached from my workplace, dedicating all my time and energy to my lovely daughters. And that's the most enjoyable and rewarding thing to be doing, in my opinion.
The weather is also cooperating wonderfully, and for the past two weeks we're having very non-Pittsburgh days, with blue skies, sunshine and perfect temperatures. Most of my time is spent walking around the neighborhood with Maayan in her stroller, absorbing the sun while drinking coffee, visiting Hadas at daycare and Noga at school and spending a lot of time with the three of them. If there wasn't that annoying need for my salary, I would have joyfully adopted this lifestyle for good ;-)
Hadas and Noga definitely had the expected post-family-expansion difficulties, each in her own way and time. However, we're long past these episodes by now, and they're both back to normal - extremely happy and lively girls, ever developing and evolving, fascinating company and most importantly true friends for each other. Hadas grew up so much and has become so mature, that it's sometimes hard for me to believe. She's still full of mischief and she has the inherent tendency not to obey, but I think this is a big part of her charm. Noga is simply blossoming at school, where she had a fantastic year. She is now a book worm just like her mother, reading full length books any time she can. Sometimes she's so absorbed in a book that it's really difficult to draw her attention...
Generally speaking, the recent developments with Anat's career, namely the (currently remote) possibility that she'll be offered a job in Israel, forced me to think where I want to live the rest of my life. The relevant and practical options are, naturally, the US and Israel. That's a topic for a much longer and detailed discussion, for which I don't have the time right now, but the bottom line is that I can't yet decisively answer this question, even to myself. I feel that the answer, at least for me, is not as obvious as it used to be 10 or 15 years ago. But, again, this is a subject for a separate posting, and I need to start the morning routine and get the girls organized for their last school day before going to Israel.
Looking forward to seeing many of you very soon!!
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora (this list became longer, ha?! ;-)
Saturday, February 3
Welcome, Maayan!
We want to share some happy news with you! On Wednesday, 31 January 2007, our third daughter, Maayan was born. The birth was exceptionally quick and smooth, and 8 hours after she was born at the midwife center we were all situated back home, healthy and feeling well. Maayan weighed 3.8 kg (8 lb 7 oz) and is without a doubt the cutest thing!!! We promise to update our web site with additional photos as soon as our hectic (and so far sleepless) schedule allows.
Hugs and kisses,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
Hugs and kisses,
Maayan, Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
Monday, January 1
Happy New Year! (from Pittsburgh)
My previous post was written around the Hebrew New Year, and after quite a while here I am, writing again, as the Gregorian New Year is approaching. Re-reading my previous post I realized that I didn't yet say that the baby we're expecting will be a third girl. Well, that isn't really surprising, is it? What else can we make?! ;-) As far as I'm concerned, anyway, girls are the best thing to have!
Anat is ambitious to get a lot done before giving birth (due early February), thus our lives have been pretty hectic recently. She is working frantically on multiple projects and papers, to the extent that it's sometimes hard to believe she's pregnant. All that in addition to attending a couple of conferences in Canada and Texas, not to mention the extensive traveling we went through in the past few months.
We spent a perfect long weekend in New-York city, enjoying the fantastic hospitality of our friend Itsik and his family and tasting a lot of the Big Apple. Shortly afterwards we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation with our friends Yael & Yaniv and their kids in Bloomington, Indiana. Each of these two destinations entails 7-8 hour drive in each direction, which went as smoothly as a long drive can. Our tolerance for long drives has definitely improved. I'll refrain from providing detailed accounts of these two vacations, due to complaints about the length of my postings ;-)
Generally speaking, in the past several months we've been doing many things that won't be as accessible with a newborn, such as going out (with or without the girls), going to concerts etc. There is no doubt - our lives are going to change drastically in going back to having a baby. Noga and Hadas are sooooo big by now, such that for extended periods of time they're totally self-sufficient. For example, it's not uncommon for them to wake up on a weekend morning, get breakfast and entertain themselves for a long while, allowing both of us to sleep very late. Such luxuries, obviously, will soon be gone… However, laying my hands on Anat's enormous basketball- shaped belly and feeling my third daughter kicking and dancing is an instant reminder of the joys expecting us. In addition, Noga and Hadas are utterly excited about their future sister. Well, I'm not sure Hadas fully understands the implications, but their attitude is definitely positive.
Talking about the girls, they are really amazingly huge. Hadas is intrigued by numbers and by opposites, which are recently her favorite bed time entertainment. Cuddling her and smelling her addicting after-bath freshness, we cover long-short, high-low, wide- narrow and the like. It's fascinating to observe the way she is learning things, and especially (that wasn't there when Noga was her age) the influence of her bilingualism. For example, answering the question "which number comes after 20" is instant in English, but much slower in Hebrew. On the other hand, her command of opposites is much better in Hebrew than in English. What a complex system… Noga is thriving at school and really loves it. As an anecdote, when as part of her homework she was requested to list the things she's thankful for, "school" was at the top of the list... It's really great seeing her enjoying her daily activities so much! Just like her Mom she is quickly becoming a book worm, and she's reading a LOT, including full-length books, such as "Little House on the Prairie".
I could fill pages telling about how cute they are, how they both lend themselves gleefully to kisses, hugs and cuddling. Or elaborate about our small daily traditions, such as each family member telling over dinner about their day's highlights. But I'll only say what's probably most important - both of them are very happy girls the vast majority of the time, a fact that naturally makes our lives bright!
It might be a good idea to tell more about the pregnancy and the planned labor. Both Noga and Hadas were born in a hospital ("Beylinson"), leaving us with very bad feelings about the way birth is handled and managed in a hospital. I'll spare you the details, and will only say that after Hadas' birth we decided that if at all possible, we'd prefer our next child *not* to be born in a hospital. That's why we were so happy to discover that Pittsburgh has an alternative institution, called the "midwife center". There is tons of fascinating information about midwifery, but in a nutshell, this means that the person helping the woman give birth is not a medical doctor, but a nurse midwife. The birth itself is bound to be natural (no Epidural). Nurse midwives undergo special graduate education and receive state certification (at least in Pennsylvania). In addition to the labor itself, all the prenatal care is performed by midwives rather than by doctors, in a setting which is anything but a hospital. I probably cannot say anything definite until after the birth, but at least so far it's hard to convey how different an experience this has been for us!
The differences are felt in every tiny detail - the atmosphere at the center, the welcoming design of the place and most importantly - their basic attitude of sharing information with the pregnant woman and her spouse, ultimately leaving all the choices and final decisions up to us. Don't get me wrong - the midwife center is a respectable professional institution, that has existed for more than 20 years and whose services are covered by every major health insurance provider. The key point, in my opinion, is that midwifery views pregnancy and labor as natural processes rather than a necessarily medical procedure. That is, as long as they progress normally. If a medical need is discovered during prenatal care or develops during labor, then the birth will take place in a nearby hospital. But only then.
Weather-wise, this winter is fairly strange and surprising. After a very chilly start back in October, the temperatures went drastically upwards. It's still very cold in Israeli terms, most of the time not much warmer than 0 degrees Celsius, but in Pittsburgh terms this isn't a winter. Let alone the almost total absence of snow - we had only one mild snow so far, making us more or less even with Jerusalem ;-) I guess that this global warming thing, which we all conveniently ignore in our daily routines, is here and is tangible. While we're at it, in http://tonykaron.com/2006/11/18/marx-and-fukuyama-were-wrong-its-the-environment-stupid/ you can find a very interesting article about the issue, with the first part giving scary information about potential scenarios.
Happy New Year!
Giora
Anat is ambitious to get a lot done before giving birth (due early February), thus our lives have been pretty hectic recently. She is working frantically on multiple projects and papers, to the extent that it's sometimes hard to believe she's pregnant. All that in addition to attending a couple of conferences in Canada and Texas, not to mention the extensive traveling we went through in the past few months.
We spent a perfect long weekend in New-York city, enjoying the fantastic hospitality of our friend Itsik and his family and tasting a lot of the Big Apple. Shortly afterwards we spent a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation with our friends Yael & Yaniv and their kids in Bloomington, Indiana. Each of these two destinations entails 7-8 hour drive in each direction, which went as smoothly as a long drive can. Our tolerance for long drives has definitely improved. I'll refrain from providing detailed accounts of these two vacations, due to complaints about the length of my postings ;-)
Generally speaking, in the past several months we've been doing many things that won't be as accessible with a newborn, such as going out (with or without the girls), going to concerts etc. There is no doubt - our lives are going to change drastically in going back to having a baby. Noga and Hadas are sooooo big by now, such that for extended periods of time they're totally self-sufficient. For example, it's not uncommon for them to wake up on a weekend morning, get breakfast and entertain themselves for a long while, allowing both of us to sleep very late. Such luxuries, obviously, will soon be gone… However, laying my hands on Anat's enormous basketball- shaped belly and feeling my third daughter kicking and dancing is an instant reminder of the joys expecting us. In addition, Noga and Hadas are utterly excited about their future sister. Well, I'm not sure Hadas fully understands the implications, but their attitude is definitely positive.
Talking about the girls, they are really amazingly huge. Hadas is intrigued by numbers and by opposites, which are recently her favorite bed time entertainment. Cuddling her and smelling her addicting after-bath freshness, we cover long-short, high-low, wide- narrow and the like. It's fascinating to observe the way she is learning things, and especially (that wasn't there when Noga was her age) the influence of her bilingualism. For example, answering the question "which number comes after 20" is instant in English, but much slower in Hebrew. On the other hand, her command of opposites is much better in Hebrew than in English. What a complex system… Noga is thriving at school and really loves it. As an anecdote, when as part of her homework she was requested to list the things she's thankful for, "school" was at the top of the list... It's really great seeing her enjoying her daily activities so much! Just like her Mom she is quickly becoming a book worm, and she's reading a LOT, including full-length books, such as "Little House on the Prairie".
I could fill pages telling about how cute they are, how they both lend themselves gleefully to kisses, hugs and cuddling. Or elaborate about our small daily traditions, such as each family member telling over dinner about their day's highlights. But I'll only say what's probably most important - both of them are very happy girls the vast majority of the time, a fact that naturally makes our lives bright!
It might be a good idea to tell more about the pregnancy and the planned labor. Both Noga and Hadas were born in a hospital ("Beylinson"), leaving us with very bad feelings about the way birth is handled and managed in a hospital. I'll spare you the details, and will only say that after Hadas' birth we decided that if at all possible, we'd prefer our next child *not* to be born in a hospital. That's why we were so happy to discover that Pittsburgh has an alternative institution, called the "midwife center". There is tons of fascinating information about midwifery, but in a nutshell, this means that the person helping the woman give birth is not a medical doctor, but a nurse midwife. The birth itself is bound to be natural (no Epidural). Nurse midwives undergo special graduate education and receive state certification (at least in Pennsylvania). In addition to the labor itself, all the prenatal care is performed by midwives rather than by doctors, in a setting which is anything but a hospital. I probably cannot say anything definite until after the birth, but at least so far it's hard to convey how different an experience this has been for us!
The differences are felt in every tiny detail - the atmosphere at the center, the welcoming design of the place and most importantly - their basic attitude of sharing information with the pregnant woman and her spouse, ultimately leaving all the choices and final decisions up to us. Don't get me wrong - the midwife center is a respectable professional institution, that has existed for more than 20 years and whose services are covered by every major health insurance provider. The key point, in my opinion, is that midwifery views pregnancy and labor as natural processes rather than a necessarily medical procedure. That is, as long as they progress normally. If a medical need is discovered during prenatal care or develops during labor, then the birth will take place in a nearby hospital. But only then.
Weather-wise, this winter is fairly strange and surprising. After a very chilly start back in October, the temperatures went drastically upwards. It's still very cold in Israeli terms, most of the time not much warmer than 0 degrees Celsius, but in Pittsburgh terms this isn't a winter. Let alone the almost total absence of snow - we had only one mild snow so far, making us more or less even with Jerusalem ;-) I guess that this global warming thing, which we all conveniently ignore in our daily routines, is here and is tangible. While we're at it, in http://tonykaron.com/2006/11/18/marx-and-fukuyama-were-wrong-its-the-environment-stupid/ you can find a very interesting article about the issue, with the first part giving scary information about potential scenarios.
Happy New Year!
Giora
Saturday, September 23
Shana Tova!!!
In a couple of hours those of you living in Israel will sit to the holiday table and celebrate Rosh Hashana. We, in a different time zone, will be doing the same a few hours later, and wanted to wish everybody Shana Tova U'metuka!!!
I also wanted to share some more happy news with all of you. Anat is pregnant, and we're expecting our third child in early February. So far the pregnancy is progressing just as it should and we're all very excited about it. Other than that, due to the unpleasant events back in July-August, my previous posting neglected to elaborate about our wonderful travels in the Pacific North-West. As I previously wrote, I have a lot to tell, and I'll try to catch up now.
To begin with, we embarked on a very long vacation, in American terms - 17 days. We flew out to Seattle and spent a few very pleasant days with our friends Lisa & Ron and their lovely daughters Laila and Maayan. Not only did we enjoy their wonderful hospitality, but we also went hiking and camping together in Olympic National Park, a fantastic park not too far from Seattle. As an aside, Seattlers have 3 nearby beautiful National Parks. Lucky them... It's been a long while since we lived close to Ron & Lisa in Israel, and getting together again was terrific!
We decided to skip Vancouver and most of British Columbia (can't win 'em all) and had a long drive (about 11 hours) to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. As you probably know, Canada is a gigantic country, second largest in land-area (yep, Russia is still the biggest, even without being the USSR). When you think that there are only 33 million Canadians (compare to almost 300 million Americans), you realize how sparsely populated this country is. Indeed, that vast majority of the Canadians live within 200 miles from the border with the US, but still even in this belt you could drive for hours and see very few people. We split the long drive into two days, and on the way stopped in a local park (called Well's Gray) which turned out to be surprisingly attractive. We didn't plan this part of the trip in advance, and were thrilled to discover that the park boasts several huge and magnificent waterfalls. One of the things I love most in nature is waterfalls; I can watch waterfalls for a very long time, fascinated by the perpetual movement of inconceivable amounts of water. Add to that the relatively sparse crowds in this park (as opposed to, say, the Niagara Falls), and you'll understand how pleasant the visit was.
We travel a lot in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and not infrequently also further away, camping and hiking in state parks, be it Pennsylvania, West Virginia or other nearby states. As beautiful as these places are, one thing I've already learned is that in North America places declared as National Parks are indeed something else, on a different order of magnitude. A perfect example would be the breathtaking views one absorbs when driving into the Canadian Rockies, especially Mount Robson. In the Rockies, both in the Canadian part (Jasper and Banff National Parks) and in the US part (Glacier National Park in Montana) you get nature in all its majesty: snow-capped mountains, turquoise lakes, lots of greenery, extensive wild life and many glaciers. We took full advantage of these and for about two weeks our days included gorgeous hikes, along with occasional sailing and other activities. One excursion worth mentioning is a tour we took on an ice-Explorer, which is a unique bus-like vehicle that drives you on an Ice-field, which for all practical purposes is a gigantic glacier. There aren't many ways for us, with two young daughters, to wander around on a glacier...
Generally speaking, of the two parks on the Canadian side, we liked Jasper better. Banff is equally gorgeous, but to our taste too crowded and touristy. A funny anecdote, though we didn't witness it first hand, is that Banff is extremely popular with Japanese tourists, to the extent that there is a Japanese soap opera taking place in Banff, and Japanese couples sometime choose the location for their weddings. Pretty odd ;-) Glacier National Park in Montana is probably one of the most amazing national parks in the US. It's noteworthy that despite it being also part of the Rockies, the scenery is significantly different from the Canadian Rockies: it is rockier, with less vegetation and more interesting shapes of the mountain tops. Interestingly, there are very few glaciers in this park nowadays - the name comes due to ice- age glaciers that shaped the mountains. It is not nearly as crowded as Banff, which was commensurate with our preferences. The park still throngs with tourists, but you definitely get the feeling of nature most of the time, and in most trails. We were told that the average visit duration in the park is a meager 8 hours, we spent almost a week there and still didn't see all we wanted...
I wouldn't like to tire you with a day-by-day account, but for those of you who might plan a trip to the northern Rockies, I'll list the places which we found most impressive: Lake Maligne and Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper; Lake Moraine, Lake Louise and the Gondola in Banff; The astonishing drive on Highway 93 between Jasper and Banff, arguably one of the most beautiful drives in the world (well, at least that's what the brochure writers and other Mavens say :-); Lake Grinnell, Sun Point and Lake Avalanche in Glacier National Park. On another note, in such a trip it was inevitable to conduct mental comparisons with our New Zealand travels. Here are some aspects I found worth mentioning:
- The distances in Canada and the US are nothing like the short distances between attractions in New Zealand. In NZ we drove 5000 km in 2 months; this time we drove about 3500 km (more than 2/3) in about two weeks. Clearly our daughters' tolerance for long drives has greatly improved. Generally speaking, Americans drive a LOT, and it's not uncommon to see in Montana vehicles from many states, some of them as distant as Florida, Oklahoma and Texas. - Hadas literally doubled her age and is no longer a baby: no diapers, she was walking on her own feet most of the time. A huge difference! (yes, yes, I know that soon traveling for us will be *with* a baby again)
- Noga is also much bigger and a better hiker. With Hadas on my back, we could extend the range of our hikes significantly, Noga being able to walk as long as 5 miles. It makes a big difference, and the selection of possible trails is greatly increased.
- Nature is fantastic in both places, but while in New Zealand it's the whole country, in North America it's encapsulated in parks and reserves, which is probably the only way to preserve and protect the natural resources.
- Unlike in New Zealand, the great weather in the Rockies during summer time enabled us to camp most of the nights - mostly in tents, sometimes in camping cabins and once in an Indian Tipi (!). I must say that for me camping is an important aspect of the trip. It's hard for me to explain, but lighting a fire, cooking outside, sleeping in a tent and smelling the morning freshness outdoors - are all a big part of the experience.
Last but not least: wild life. One of my hopes was to spot a bear. Grizzly Bears and Black Bears are very common in the northern Rockies. We saw a lot of wildlife - moose, deer, mountain goats, but not a single bear. Very disappointing... Fortunately, a few weeks ago, this was corrected. On Labor Day weekend, we went camping and hiking with our friends Tamar & Amir in a beautiful State Park in north-east Pennsylvania. In an early morning hour, when we were having breakfast, a cute black bear came wandering through the campground. Shortly after we spotted it some other campers made intentional noise to scare it away (which is obviously the right thing to do), but at last I got to see a real bear in nature, not inside a cage in the zoo ;-)
So, as you can understand, we were preserving the momentum - hiking in the surrounding state parks, enjoying several visits of grandparents and siblings, and we even spent a weekend in Washington DC. We should hurry up before winter comes along and the only reasonable outdoors activity would be skiing and snow sledding...
Shana Tova to all of you,
Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
I also wanted to share some more happy news with all of you. Anat is pregnant, and we're expecting our third child in early February. So far the pregnancy is progressing just as it should and we're all very excited about it. Other than that, due to the unpleasant events back in July-August, my previous posting neglected to elaborate about our wonderful travels in the Pacific North-West. As I previously wrote, I have a lot to tell, and I'll try to catch up now.
To begin with, we embarked on a very long vacation, in American terms - 17 days. We flew out to Seattle and spent a few very pleasant days with our friends Lisa & Ron and their lovely daughters Laila and Maayan. Not only did we enjoy their wonderful hospitality, but we also went hiking and camping together in Olympic National Park, a fantastic park not too far from Seattle. As an aside, Seattlers have 3 nearby beautiful National Parks. Lucky them... It's been a long while since we lived close to Ron & Lisa in Israel, and getting together again was terrific!
We decided to skip Vancouver and most of British Columbia (can't win 'em all) and had a long drive (about 11 hours) to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. As you probably know, Canada is a gigantic country, second largest in land-area (yep, Russia is still the biggest, even without being the USSR). When you think that there are only 33 million Canadians (compare to almost 300 million Americans), you realize how sparsely populated this country is. Indeed, that vast majority of the Canadians live within 200 miles from the border with the US, but still even in this belt you could drive for hours and see very few people. We split the long drive into two days, and on the way stopped in a local park (called Well's Gray) which turned out to be surprisingly attractive. We didn't plan this part of the trip in advance, and were thrilled to discover that the park boasts several huge and magnificent waterfalls. One of the things I love most in nature is waterfalls; I can watch waterfalls for a very long time, fascinated by the perpetual movement of inconceivable amounts of water. Add to that the relatively sparse crowds in this park (as opposed to, say, the Niagara Falls), and you'll understand how pleasant the visit was.
We travel a lot in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, and not infrequently also further away, camping and hiking in state parks, be it Pennsylvania, West Virginia or other nearby states. As beautiful as these places are, one thing I've already learned is that in North America places declared as National Parks are indeed something else, on a different order of magnitude. A perfect example would be the breathtaking views one absorbs when driving into the Canadian Rockies, especially Mount Robson. In the Rockies, both in the Canadian part (Jasper and Banff National Parks) and in the US part (Glacier National Park in Montana) you get nature in all its majesty: snow-capped mountains, turquoise lakes, lots of greenery, extensive wild life and many glaciers. We took full advantage of these and for about two weeks our days included gorgeous hikes, along with occasional sailing and other activities. One excursion worth mentioning is a tour we took on an ice-Explorer, which is a unique bus-like vehicle that drives you on an Ice-field, which for all practical purposes is a gigantic glacier. There aren't many ways for us, with two young daughters, to wander around on a glacier...
Generally speaking, of the two parks on the Canadian side, we liked Jasper better. Banff is equally gorgeous, but to our taste too crowded and touristy. A funny anecdote, though we didn't witness it first hand, is that Banff is extremely popular with Japanese tourists, to the extent that there is a Japanese soap opera taking place in Banff, and Japanese couples sometime choose the location for their weddings. Pretty odd ;-) Glacier National Park in Montana is probably one of the most amazing national parks in the US. It's noteworthy that despite it being also part of the Rockies, the scenery is significantly different from the Canadian Rockies: it is rockier, with less vegetation and more interesting shapes of the mountain tops. Interestingly, there are very few glaciers in this park nowadays - the name comes due to ice- age glaciers that shaped the mountains. It is not nearly as crowded as Banff, which was commensurate with our preferences. The park still throngs with tourists, but you definitely get the feeling of nature most of the time, and in most trails. We were told that the average visit duration in the park is a meager 8 hours, we spent almost a week there and still didn't see all we wanted...
I wouldn't like to tire you with a day-by-day account, but for those of you who might plan a trip to the northern Rockies, I'll list the places which we found most impressive: Lake Maligne and Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper; Lake Moraine, Lake Louise and the Gondola in Banff; The astonishing drive on Highway 93 between Jasper and Banff, arguably one of the most beautiful drives in the world (well, at least that's what the brochure writers and other Mavens say :-); Lake Grinnell, Sun Point and Lake Avalanche in Glacier National Park. On another note, in such a trip it was inevitable to conduct mental comparisons with our New Zealand travels. Here are some aspects I found worth mentioning:
- The distances in Canada and the US are nothing like the short distances between attractions in New Zealand. In NZ we drove 5000 km in 2 months; this time we drove about 3500 km (more than 2/3) in about two weeks. Clearly our daughters' tolerance for long drives has greatly improved. Generally speaking, Americans drive a LOT, and it's not uncommon to see in Montana vehicles from many states, some of them as distant as Florida, Oklahoma and Texas. - Hadas literally doubled her age and is no longer a baby: no diapers, she was walking on her own feet most of the time. A huge difference! (yes, yes, I know that soon traveling for us will be *with* a baby again)
- Noga is also much bigger and a better hiker. With Hadas on my back, we could extend the range of our hikes significantly, Noga being able to walk as long as 5 miles. It makes a big difference, and the selection of possible trails is greatly increased.
- Nature is fantastic in both places, but while in New Zealand it's the whole country, in North America it's encapsulated in parks and reserves, which is probably the only way to preserve and protect the natural resources.
- Unlike in New Zealand, the great weather in the Rockies during summer time enabled us to camp most of the nights - mostly in tents, sometimes in camping cabins and once in an Indian Tipi (!). I must say that for me camping is an important aspect of the trip. It's hard for me to explain, but lighting a fire, cooking outside, sleeping in a tent and smelling the morning freshness outdoors - are all a big part of the experience.
Last but not least: wild life. One of my hopes was to spot a bear. Grizzly Bears and Black Bears are very common in the northern Rockies. We saw a lot of wildlife - moose, deer, mountain goats, but not a single bear. Very disappointing... Fortunately, a few weeks ago, this was corrected. On Labor Day weekend, we went camping and hiking with our friends Tamar & Amir in a beautiful State Park in north-east Pennsylvania. In an early morning hour, when we were having breakfast, a cute black bear came wandering through the campground. Shortly after we spotted it some other campers made intentional noise to scare it away (which is obviously the right thing to do), but at last I got to see a real bear in nature, not inside a cage in the zoo ;-)
So, as you can understand, we were preserving the momentum - hiking in the surrounding state parks, enjoying several visits of grandparents and siblings, and we even spent a weekend in Washington DC. We should hurry up before winter comes along and the only reasonable outdoors activity would be skiing and snow sledding...
Shana Tova to all of you,
Hadas, Noga, Anat & Giora
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