efratti (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} efratti) wrote,@ 2009-07-29 22:02:00 |
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I Still Have a Blog?
It's been 4 months of mentally composing blog entries that never got written, and two months of completely forgetting that I have a blog.
Quick updates:
FEBRUARY: My third election in four months: Israel national government following the two November elections, US President and MD Congressional Representative and Jerualem Mayoral and City Council. I was too busy and not passionate for any political party (note that the other elections involved voting for individuals and not parties) to join a campaign effort. However, I did spend election day working as a Poll Station Observer, a title that I have re-named Defender of Democracy. Representing the Likud political party, I made sure there was no funny business while counting the votes in a precinct near my home.
MARCH: For Purim this year I dressed up like my blog title: The Azza St Spy. The costume involved looking like a detective with a trenchcoat, binoculars, pipe, pencil and pad of paper, and a sign taped to the back of the coat: Azza St. I also co-hosted the third annual Purim Seudah brunch in which ~60 guests came to share Seudat Purim.
APRIL: Following the Obama Inauguration Party, I was pursued by the Chair of the Democrats Abroad-Israel country committee to be the Coordinator for the Jerusalem Region, making me a a de facto officer of the Executive Committee. Can someone say overextended?
MAY: Who can even remember May?
JUNE: The Friday night following Shavuot (but still Shavuot for Jews all over the world not inside Israel) I celebrated a "two-day holiday" by hosting an oneg. I hit my all-time record turnout: 65 people. Not only have I never singly hosted an event with 65 people showing up, I had genuine crashers, a real milestone. Some of my guests broght their dinner company, which does not count as crashing. Others just walked in unaccompanied by invited guests. Wacky.
JULY: 11-day trip to Malta!! Yeah!! The primary purpose of the trip was to present research at and attend the annual conference of ISPA, International School Psychology Association. While Malta is close to Israel and should not be more than a two-hour flight, the lack of direct flights makes it quite the arduous journey. Regardless, this was not only business, but pleasure, too. I spent an extra week with friends of the conference (arranged before) to go touring.
Highlights of Malta: All tourist attractions (ancient ruins, temples, museums, etc.) managed by Heritage Malta are a must-see. This is an independent agency that works to protect and develop tourist sites, and they do an excellent job. By restricting yourself to the sites they manage, you can see the cross-section that Malta has to offer at Grade A quality. Examples of great sites under their auspices: The Hypogeum, the oldest stone structure in the world, 5,000 years old and still intact b.c it was built underground; other ancient temples and ruins; Catacombs built in medieval times; the Archaeology Museum and the WWII museum. St. John's Co-Cathedral is another major highlight. Malta is apparently the Isle of MTV, which means that my trip overlapped with the free MTV concert where the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga performed. I felt like I won the lottery. I never go to rock concerts and it was my second time seeing the BEP perform! I was also tickled to discover how much the Maltese language has in common with Hebrew. In short, a great trip!
AVOID: Malta Assist. They are fraudulent operators who pretend to reserve tickets for you, but really just steal your money. The Hypogeum is an amazing site that requires ticket reservations months in advance. It is a 5,000 year-old structure that requires careful climate control so that it doesn't get spoiled. After you buy your plane ticket, reserve your ticket online via Heritage Malta. Malta Assist are a bunch of crooks who are known to the local police for stealing unsuspecting tourists' money. Spoiler: We were victims of their fraudulent activity, but still got in anyway.
Where is this blog going?
Back to the title of the entry, after the distractors of my 6-month update. My blog fatigue is sufficiently apparent, it requires no additional description. On Yom HaAtsmaut, Israel Independence Day, I was thinking about my blog, why I've stopped writing, why has the fatigue totally taken over, etc. The following analogy occurred to me and seemed on target:
When entering a new relationship, one may consult with friends for purposes of sharing and getting feedback. What do you think of him? What do you think of this comment he made? But, as the relationship develops and begins to stand on its own legs, the friends take a less active role. The communication becomes more comfortable and more direct. Rather than asking friends for opinions and advice, matters requiring attention can be discussed openly between the two individuals. Not only is it more efficient, it's also logical and appropriate. It's not that the friends fade, but their role becomes secondary as the target relationship is more developed.
I believe that this is how my aliyah has evolved, and impacted my phases of blogging. When writing, I would always have the imaginary audience of friends living in the US reading my blog. I wrote the entries when feeling inspired and when I was in the mood to share. Writing the blog, which helped maintain my English-language writing skills, served the therapeutic purpose of helping me process and reflect what was going on around me. The writing exercise and the sharing inherent to it, was a way to cope with aliyah.
Then I realized on Indepence Day of this year that I've graduated. The therapeutic value in writing the blog has diminished, because I reached the next phase in living here. Sharing with others via blog entries doesn't really matter anymore.
This is all too bad, because I am convinced that my stories get better as I live here longer, not more ordinary and mundane. But, I have no incentive to take the time out to write about them, if I am no longer getting benefit out of it, too. If I were another person, I would shift my style to frequent, brief entries. But that, too, would be forced and artificial. I can seem to only do the essay thing.
And, so, the end of an era. I hope a new phase arrives and I'm re-inspired to start blogging again. But, until then, the effort is too extensive and too forced. I can communicate with Israel directly about how things are going, without informing everyone else.
It's been 4 months of mentally composing blog entries that never got written, and two months of completely forgetting that I have a blog.
Quick updates:
FEBRUARY: My third election in four months: Israel national government following the two November elections, US President and MD Congressional Representative and Jerualem Mayoral and City Council. I was too busy and not passionate for any political party (note that the other elections involved voting for individuals and not parties) to join a campaign effort. However, I did spend election day working as a Poll Station Observer, a title that I have re-named Defender of Democracy. Representing the Likud political party, I made sure there was no funny business while counting the votes in a precinct near my home.
MARCH: For Purim this year I dressed up like my blog title: The Azza St Spy. The costume involved looking like a detective with a trenchcoat, binoculars, pipe, pencil and pad of paper, and a sign taped to the back of the coat: Azza St. I also co-hosted the third annual Purim Seudah brunch in which ~60 guests came to share Seudat Purim.
APRIL: Following the Obama Inauguration Party, I was pursued by the Chair of the Democrats Abroad-Israel country committee to be the Coordinator for the Jerusalem Region, making me a a de facto officer of the Executive Committee. Can someone say overextended?
MAY: Who can even remember May?
JUNE: The Friday night following Shavuot (but still Shavuot for Jews all over the world not inside Israel) I celebrated a "two-day holiday" by hosting an oneg. I hit my all-time record turnout: 65 people. Not only have I never singly hosted an event with 65 people showing up, I had genuine crashers, a real milestone. Some of my guests broght their dinner company, which does not count as crashing. Others just walked in unaccompanied by invited guests. Wacky.
JULY: 11-day trip to Malta!! Yeah!! The primary purpose of the trip was to present research at and attend the annual conference of ISPA, International School Psychology Association. While Malta is close to Israel and should not be more than a two-hour flight, the lack of direct flights makes it quite the arduous journey. Regardless, this was not only business, but pleasure, too. I spent an extra week with friends of the conference (arranged before) to go touring.
Highlights of Malta: All tourist attractions (ancient ruins, temples, museums, etc.) managed by Heritage Malta are a must-see. This is an independent agency that works to protect and develop tourist sites, and they do an excellent job. By restricting yourself to the sites they manage, you can see the cross-section that Malta has to offer at Grade A quality. Examples of great sites under their auspices: The Hypogeum, the oldest stone structure in the world, 5,000 years old and still intact b.c it was built underground; other ancient temples and ruins; Catacombs built in medieval times; the Archaeology Museum and the WWII museum. St. John's Co-Cathedral is another major highlight. Malta is apparently the Isle of MTV, which means that my trip overlapped with the free MTV concert where the Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga performed. I felt like I won the lottery. I never go to rock concerts and it was my second time seeing the BEP perform! I was also tickled to discover how much the Maltese language has in common with Hebrew. In short, a great trip!
AVOID: Malta Assist. They are fraudulent operators who pretend to reserve tickets for you, but really just steal your money. The Hypogeum is an amazing site that requires ticket reservations months in advance. It is a 5,000 year-old structure that requires careful climate control so that it doesn't get spoiled. After you buy your plane ticket, reserve your ticket online via Heritage Malta. Malta Assist are a bunch of crooks who are known to the local police for stealing unsuspecting tourists' money. Spoiler: We were victims of their fraudulent activity, but still got in anyway.
Where is this blog going?
Back to the title of the entry, after the distractors of my 6-month update. My blog fatigue is sufficiently apparent, it requires no additional description. On Yom HaAtsmaut, Israel Independence Day, I was thinking about my blog, why I've stopped writing, why has the fatigue totally taken over, etc. The following analogy occurred to me and seemed on target:
When entering a new relationship, one may consult with friends for purposes of sharing and getting feedback. What do you think of him? What do you think of this comment he made? But, as the relationship develops and begins to stand on its own legs, the friends take a less active role. The communication becomes more comfortable and more direct. Rather than asking friends for opinions and advice, matters requiring attention can be discussed openly between the two individuals. Not only is it more efficient, it's also logical and appropriate. It's not that the friends fade, but their role becomes secondary as the target relationship is more developed.
I believe that this is how my aliyah has evolved, and impacted my phases of blogging. When writing, I would always have the imaginary audience of friends living in the US reading my blog. I wrote the entries when feeling inspired and when I was in the mood to share. Writing the blog, which helped maintain my English-language writing skills, served the therapeutic purpose of helping me process and reflect what was going on around me. The writing exercise and the sharing inherent to it, was a way to cope with aliyah.
Then I realized on Indepence Day of this year that I've graduated. The therapeutic value in writing the blog has diminished, because I reached the next phase in living here. Sharing with others via blog entries doesn't really matter anymore.
This is all too bad, because I am convinced that my stories get better as I live here longer, not more ordinary and mundane. But, I have no incentive to take the time out to write about them, if I am no longer getting benefit out of it, too. If I were another person, I would shift my style to frequent, brief entries. But that, too, would be forced and artificial. I can seem to only do the essay thing.
And, so, the end of an era. I hope a new phase arrives and I'm re-inspired to start blogging again. But, until then, the effort is too extensive and too forced. I can communicate with Israel directly about how things are going, without informing everyone else.
