Unleavened bread, Unpacking and an Unknown Commenter

So this weekend was the beginning of Passover, or Pesach, as it is called here. So Passover is (and I totally copied this in here from Wikipedia because Wiki is far more consice and articulate than I am) "a Jewish and Samaritan holy day and festival commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. It is also known as Festival of the Unleavened Bread." During this time the Torah prohibits the consumption of "chametz", or certain leavening and fermenting agents and anything made with them. Thus, no bread. For strict followers of the traditions you must start cleaning your house weeks before to rid it of all "chametz", down to the very teeny tiniest little crumb. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea, but I guess some people enjoy it. This is all clearly more complicated than I am making it out to be and different Jewish cultures have different beliefs on "chemical" leavening (i.e. baking soda) versus leavening caused by fermentation (i.e. yeast). For those of you who know more about this than me, please feel free to enlighten me with more info. If not, I would like to thank Wikipedia for providing me with my Passover education.

Suffice it to say, we have stocked our freezer with every type of bread imaginable just in case we are not able to find it at the stores. Phil and I no likey the lo-carb concept, even if only for a week. Bakeries shut down for the week as do most kosher restaurants (rather than try to adhere to the zero "chametz" rule and have to change up their menus). Thus we went to our favorite pizza place, which also happens to be kosher, the other night because the thought of not being able to go there for a week was very saddening. So chances are we can probably find bread at some stores here in Tel Aviv but we just decided not to chance it. I even heard that some places will just cover it up and that if you want to buy it all you have to do is reach under and grab it. Certainly in more religious, less-secular parts of the country you would not be able to find bread anywhere. So instead of bread people eat "matzo" wish is pretty much just a cracker made from flour and good ol' water. As you can imagine, it ain't the tastiest stuff in the world. But slather some Nutella on it and I can only imagine it might taste okay.

We are pretty much unpacked except for a few random boxes of junk. They will probably just sit on the table for a week or two while I try to decide where we should put the random things like the pumpkin carving kit and the glow sticks from one of Phil's hippie concerts that somehow managed to make it into our shipment instead of the trash. Of course now that they traveled ALL the way over here it would be a shame to chuck them in the trash. Eventually I will get sick of the "junk" boxes and dump everything into an empty drawer and we will have our very own "junk" drawer. If I were smart I would just dump everything in the drawer now and save myself the two weeks of looking at the junk, but hey, that would just make too much sense now wouldn't it?!?!?

Phil is still fiddling with the broken computer, we finally have an actual bedroom with our very own (and sublimely comfortable) bed, my kitchen is all pimped out with my fun gadgets and except for the pictures we still need to hang and the wall of empty boxes in the living room, our place is finally looking and feeling quite nice. Dare I say it, it almost feels like a home and that we actually live here. As soon as we get the last odds and ends taken care of I will take some pictures of our new and improved place to share with everyone. Can't wait to share the ghetto fabulous set-up we have going on in our living room. But you'll just have to wait to see it.....

So apparently I must be getting boring already as deduced from the lack of comments recently. However, I have received some fairly interesting comments, one from the current Prime Minister of Israel and the founder and former PM of the State of Israel, Golda Meir. Something tells me that Ehud Olmert has more important things to do than read some girls blog in which she makes fun of the crazy horse cart (which apparently only one other person found amusing) and complains about the beach. Like say, a couple little things called The Gaza Strip and the West Bank. But that's just a thought. Oh yeah, and Golda Meir has been dead since before I was born. And yes, I had to Google her for that info, 'cause I was clueless. Anyhoo, while I have found said comments quite amusing, to whose sense of humor may I give credit for these witty comments?!?!?! I am quite curious.