the promised land?

Daily Show: Crises in Israfghyianonanaq

news at its best. jon stewart rocks my world.

jon stewart - the brink of war?

more reasons why i love jon stewart...

fear and stoicism in haifa

check this out...from the BBC.

siren rang at 5:30am....let's discuss that this is the definition of irritating. nothing happened, tried to get back to bed and managed to add a few more minutes of zzz's to my day.

thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers during this mess. you are all in mine.

duct tape will not save you

siren number five of the day rang about 20 minutes ago and there will be no surprise when i annouce that everything is fine over here.

yes, there have been sounds of aircrafts, sirens and booms all day long. at lunch, someone mentioned that when this whole mess is over they are going to change their ringtone to the sound of the air-raid siren. brilliant, i say.

others are taking the situation more seriously and are carrying emergency backpacks around with them. i saw this the other day and wished i had one to wear around here. man, that would have been great. i did, however, purchase this online yesterday. i LOVE it and cannot wait till it arrives.

also, if anyone is interested in reading what the press over here is covering of the situation, please see the following three websites:

haaretz
jerusalem post
ynet news

after six it just gets annoying

ok....six air-raid sirens today and we are all still ok. it is just annoying now, more than anything.

it seems this may be the situation for a while...

but atleast there was no wake-up call at 6am that we had all expected.

still breathing

though the air does kind of suck in the bomb shelter.

no, seriously....after about the 4th or 5th air-raid siren today it becomes old news - but then we watch the news from the shelter and see what you all must be seeing and get worried that perhaps you are thinking things that are a bit out of proportion...or maybe we are just taking it too easy, i'm not exactly sure.

just to let everyone know - we are all still fine. we haven't been very productive as the last few sirens went off one after the other so the minute you thought you were safe to leave and go back to your office (in my case...just to soraya's), there went the loud noise alerting you to, in fact, return back to the safe shelter you had just previously vacated.

but now, we are back above ground and just sitting here, letting everyone know we are ok and hoping we can get a good night's rest tonight.

thanks for all the kind words everyone - i hope you are all well wherever this post may find you.

i'll try to keep updating the blog when rockets strike. wow, i never thought i would be writing about this. :)

a different type of alarm clock

so here is an update for everyone:

yesterday, sunday the 16th of july, haifa was hit with some rockets. they are aiming for the oil refinery on the eastern side of the city, but hit the train station garage and some residential areas in haifa as well.

we spent most of the day in the bomb shelter and safe buildings before going home to try and take our minds off of the craziness that was our first day of the work week. this morning, at 6:00am we were all woken up by the air-raid siren alerting us that we have 1 minute to make it to a bomb shelter before the attacks will start.

we ran down and stayed there for a while. we heard some noises in the distance (which turned out to be akka being hit) and then went back to watch the news and get ready for another day at work. it seems as though everyone learned from yesterday's experience and has brought with them to work: blankets, sweaters (those bomb shelters are cold), cards, books, ipods, movies, dvd players, laptops, a change of clothes, toothbrushes....

i am personally not in my office because there is not a bomb shelter close enough to it, so i'm up in some of the more secure buildings at a friends computer. apparently, we are supposed to be hit again today, but at this rate there is really nothing certain about anything.

just wanted to let you all know that everyone here is alive and well. we are all safe and taking all the precautions we can.

i am ok

alright guys, in case you have seen the breaking news and are wondering...wow, i have a crazy friend who is living in haifa - i wonder if she is ok?

well, i am. everything is fine. we are all ok. yes, there were 2 rockets/bombs that hit haifa, we heard them and saw the mass of police cars afterwards.

things are ok, we are all going home and hoping that things will calm down here soon.

i have tried to send out a few emails, but then thought that this may be a good medium to get across to a bunch of people. the phones are down, but i'm hoping they will be up by tomorrow.

i hope that you are all reading this in safety :)

i am not dead

just in case you were all wondering what happened to my blog, it is still alive, but let's say it has been in hibernation for a while. i admit this is entirely my fault and hope you, my readers (is there anyone out there?) will forgive me while i gather my thoughts. i will be back soon, i promise. i can't stay away that long....