Shalom,

  Soon I’ll be writing to you in Hebrew!  I had my first Hebrew lesson today.  I spent about an hour or so with Eve and she taught me how to print and read and pronounce the letters. It will take me forever to learn the difference between Cha and Kha and HCHA… Half the letters are easy and half are not.  At least to pronounce.  I’ll probably be able to speak more and read more before I can write on my own and get the letters correct.  But Eve is a good teacher and has patience so we’ll see.  I paid for my lessons with banana bread. 

   Today was a very full day.  We started the day making our second trip to the Licensing Bureau to see about getting our motorbike on the road.  Randal complied with the eye test that meant walking half way across Ashdod and paying 50 shekels to get it.  But he drew the line at visiting an Israeli doctor.  There are no questions when you rent a car; pay money, show your license and you get a car and the rental company provides the insurance.  Because we own the motorbike it’s different.  So we left the Licensing Office frustrated and went off to the Wednesday Open Air Market near the beach going northeast.  Lots of great fresh fruit and vegetables.  We bought some, less than we might have if we weren’t about to walk to the nearest Police Station to double check about what was needed to ride our motorbike.  It was a long walk lugging our produce, but worth it.  The front desk policeman was helpful, but luckily another officer came along and he was just great.  Coby Mor is his name and he really listened to our problem and took the time to help solve it.  He looked at Randal’s driver’s license and saw the M for motorcycle.  Right then he told us Randal could drive the bike.  But when we told him we needed insurance, that was the issue.  Thankfully he didn’t send us back to the Eye/Physical alternative.  He made more phone calls and found a place in Tel Aviv where we could go for insurance.  Officer Mor called it an Insurance Pool and I’m guessing it’s a place where "uninsured motorists" can maybe get insurance.  We’ll see tomorrow when we go.  Luckily from our travels around Tel Aviv we know where to go and how to get there.  Hopefully it only involves paying money and not an exorbitant amount.  We really would like to use the motorbike around Ashdod and even go further afield.  It was interesting going into the police station which was located in a neighborhood.  There was no security check; you just walked in the door.  I mentioned that to Eve.  She said sure, of course, there are no crowds.  Suicide bombers go where there are crowds.  Not a happy thought but it does explain why no check at the Police Station or the Great Synagogue in Tel Aviv.  As for Officer Coby Mor; he reminded me of my cousin Stuie when Stuie was young.  If they ever need a "poster boy" for the Israeli Police they could certainly use Coby Mor.  He even took the time to listen to Randal’s Marine war stories about the M16 rifle and shared his own about Israeli weapons.  Just a really nice man.  Actually, everyone we’ve met connected with Israeli security has been very pleasant. 

  So that’s the story.

Ru

DoraMac in the Ashdod Blue Marina

The building with the sloping roof is being developed as a venue for weddings and parties. Hopefully it will be finished after we leave. There’s already lots of partying and loud music so when the facility is finished there will be even more partying and loud music. But so far we haven’t had to close up the boat and put on the AC as we had to do in Georgetown Penang Malaysia when the QE II Restaurant/Bar blasted music from 9 pm until 4 am Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. DoraMac vibrated!

We are down the finger pier to the right of my shadow.

Just past the taller grey building on the left is the mall/ art museum/ supermarket area: a 15 minute walk.

Surrounded by munchkin crafts…sea kayak classes are held here as well as sailing classes.

There are 4 boats behind the far dock. The small one on the right, with its bow behind the base of the pole and with the blue cover is Eve’s catamaran.

The sand lot behind the marina provides some open space between us and the hot air of the city.

The promenade along the beach southwest of the marina has lanes for walkers and bikers.

Charmaine, Linda and I walked one morning and I’ve gone myself since then. There’s a “natural turn around point” about 45 minutes from the boat. Across the road are high rises but then mostly single family homes almost touching each other on the sides but each with what looks like backyard living areas

About every hundred yards there are exercise areas. This one is for people in wheelchairs to share.

The curved side of the sails sculpture faces town; the straight side towards the marina.

Across from the sails sculpture is the art complex and just beyond that two malls, two supermarkets and lots of shops. Beyond that are more really walkable streets, high rises and open spaces.

Randal and I ate lunch at the Café Greg with the art complex visible behind us.

Our grocery store… Supersal in English and Hebrew if you can read it.

You never want to go late in the day and whenever you do go, bring lots of patience. The lines are long, the cashiers slow and groceries are bagged by shoppers so it takes forever.

The party ferry is just now going past out for an evening cruise…can you hear the salsa music?

Across Sederot Herzl along Sederot Menahem Begin. (You could only be in Israel with street names like Herzl, Begin, Rabin…. Wide covered arcades of small shops line both sides of the divided road. Better read either Hebrew or Russian if you want to get along without having to ask for help. Actually, most of the shop keepers in the arcade area do speak English. Above the shops are high rise apartments.

Cars everywhere in Israel stop at Zebra crossing for pedestrians.

The silver cone is a memorial to Ilan Ramon, the Challenger astronaut: looking back towards it.

From this mornings walk back from the Wednesday Open Air Market: a giant “street sale.”

The market is quite good. We paid 15 shekels for a large cantaloupe, some potatoes, tomatoes, an eggplant, two red bell peppers and some cucumbers. All that equals $3.85! Unfortunately it’s about a 30 minute walk from here so we can’t buy lots because we can’t carry that much unless we get our motorbike on the road or unearth our “drag behind cart.”

Moon over Ashdod.

Last night was the most giant orange moon I’ve ever seen. At first I thought it was something like the Citgo Sign that looks as if it’s sitting on Fenway Park. But then it gradually got higher in the sky and I realized it really was the moon.