And, we're back!

(This sums up Christmas with the LaBarges)

Well, after (what seemed to be) a short break, we've returned to the land of all that is holy and old. I left for California on December 16th for the holidays, and Lee stayed behind to 'hold the fort' until Christmas Eve, when he was able to make his escape and go home to his family. The run up to Christmas was madness, but good, and it's always fantastic to be with family on Christmas day. Puking and hangover aside, of course. I flew out to meet Lee in the UK on December 27th, and spent the next week with his family and friends.

We spent New Years Eve in London with his friends from university - ate vodka-laced fondue, broke a chair, had too much to drink (can anyone say shotglass 'naughts and crosses'?), sang some karaoke,


(At least one of us can sing. Hint: it's not me)

lit some fireworks,


(perfectly legal)

watched some snow fall - all under a glorious full moon (the universe was sparing no expense for 2010!). New Years day was downtown London, seeing the still-standing Christmas Carol decorations in Leicester square,


(I'm sure it was more impressive at night)

wandering in and out of restaurants trying to find lunch before seeing Avatar.


(note the date on the sign!)

What I love about London? Black boogers. What I hate about London? Black boogers.

The return trip was relatively uneventful - I was able to successfully change my flight to not include a stop in Vienna, and to get home at the same time as Lee....thankfully not past midnight, as I had expected. This afforded me a front-row seat for Lee's moment of realization that he had left the new apartment in shambles, expecting a 6-hour gap between his return and my arrival in which he was planning to tidy up. Considering the amount of luggage between us, and laundry to be done, and shopping to be accomplished and...and...and...it wasn't that big of a mess to come home to.

Getting back into the swing of things here in Jerusalem has been a snap - particularly considering the new apartment is amazing and much more comfortable than the last place. I pretty much immediately took on the newest adventure and took a bus trip to the mall. Sounds simple, you say; only when you consider that there is no published bus schedule, and the routes are all over the place, and add the language barrier.....it's a bit daunting. As we're now central in the city, it was less scary trying to get a bus line that would take me to the right place- even if I got lost, it was bound to come back around to SOMEWHERE familiar. Thankfully, it all went smoothly- the 18 line picks up almost directly outside of our house, and drops off almost directly outside of the huge mall on the outskirts of town. Which is across the street from the football stadium. And somewhere in there is a climbing gym, which we're going to investigate further.

I headed out to get the bus, and ended up having to run to catch it- as it was barreling down the street just as I left the house. I handed the driver my 10NIS coin, not really knowing if they gave change (the San Francisco buses certainly do not), or if I got a receipt or how any of it worked. I did, in fact, receive change (3 sheckels, 80 arogots), and a receipt/transfer. The transfers are valid for 80 minutes - a good thing to know for when Lee and I are pros at getting around town on public transport. The bus was packed, and I ended up standing next to some crinkly older people for the majority of the ride. Egged bus is the company here, and they have a fleet of newer, well maintained buses - it was a pleasant surprise.

The trip took about 35 minutes, and was uneventful - we went through parts of Jerusalem I would have been very uncomfortable walking through, with multiple 10-foot high barbed wire fences surrounding front yards, sullen youths milling about on the streets.....general signs of not-particularly-nice parts of town. The enormous mall, however, was not in a bad area, and was easily accessed - and did I mention enormous? Three stories, 4 entrances on each story, two grocery stores, a pharmacy, and Office Depot (oh, a crap one too...so weird), a Home store (like a low-class Home Depot) and so many clothing stores that I couldn't possibly count. They also had (what I consider to be) an old fashioned in-mall pet store - with a large atrium just outside containing rabbits and parrots. A lot of both. They seem odd bedfellows, but apparently it works.


(why, hello there. nice shirt.)

I did my shopping, and took the return bus rather uneventfully. Except the encounter with two completely stupid American tourist girls. Who had been on the bus for over two hours, because they missed their stop. My favorite part of the conversation:

1st Ugg-boot wearing texting dumb girl: I'm so glad you're on the bus with me. I think I'd go crazy. You put me in the front seat of a car, and let me type [text], I am happy for hours. Unless I get bored.
2nd Ugg-boot wearing non-texting dumb girl: Hm, yeah.

I ended up offering to help them get to where they needed to go (as it was right down the street from my stop), to which 1stUBWTDG said: "Oh, here the people are soooo nice" (obviously oblivious to the fact that I also was American, just not UBWDG material).

Arriving home with no further interesting things happening, I got back to domestic life by cooking dinner and waiting for Lee to get home from his first (very eventful!) day back at work.

Speaking of work....it looks like Lee's contract will be extended, which means I need to find a job. I have a tentative interview next week at a commercial/VFX house in Tel Aviv, and we'll see how it goes. If I can't find something here, Lee has said we probably won't stay for his contract extension- the lack of wage-earning, productive things for me to do won't be fun for very much longer, and I would like to make this adventure something sustainable.