Israel trip - Introduction

Summary:  This blog is a personal journal.  Skim what you like and skip the rest.  It will document Christopher and my three weeks in Israel for fun and Playback.
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I confess I'm so old fashioned that the whole idea of writing a "blog" makes me puke.  No, I'm not writing for the internet public, I'm writing
for YOU, my few nearest and dearest who might wonder, "How's Anne doing?" Mostly, I am writing for myself -- to help me savor and digest each moment of experience and to feel "at leisure" in a way I rarely permit myself at home. It's gonna take me a while to stop feeling self-conscious about writing.  Please skim for what you want and skip the rest.

Here's the overview: Christopher and I are three weeks in Israel, mostly Tel Aviv. Never been here before (not counting the few days I was here at age 11. My only memories are of soldiers and corn on the cob). Why Israel? To escape the grinding Boston winter, to have a greater adventure than our usual winter escape in San Francisco provides, and to visit Playback Theatre companies which are plentiful here. We're both of Jewish ancestry but with minimal connection to that identity, so also curious what stirs for us in being here.

We've already milked the trip for excitement,  turning to each other daily for months and exclaiming, "We're going to ISRAEL!!!" and "Thank god we're planning to leave the snowbanks behind!"  Plus I've  already quadrupled my knowledge of the history and culture (which was easy as I started from ziltch) by reading "Israel is Real" a fascinating review of 2,000 years by American journalist Rich Cohen, and the novel "The Black Box" by famous Israeli author Amos Oz.  I'm now starting "The Lemon Tree," subtitled "An Arab, A Jew, and The Heart of the Middle East" "by Sandy Tolan.  So the trip has already  done its magic.