I thought people were joking around when they told me that the 08/08 of every year is the ba-ba day, or father’s day ("eight-eight" or "dad" in Chinese - 爸爸節 or 父親節). Strange… we never have "Father’s day" in Israel. We used to have mother’s day till a few politically correct politicians declared it "family day", which made it more general and a lot more complicated to express something personal. But, anyways, turns out there is one. Cool.

So, dad…

Here are some great memories from our trip together to Australia:

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While visiting the Taiwanese Chinese new years party a week ago with a Taiwanese student friend from the Hebrew University - Wen, I finally had the chance to meet Ruby who I know through her Taiwanese blogging about Israel and Violet who’s an Israeli-Taiwanese girl studying Mandarin Chinese through blogging in Chinese about her life in Israel. Later on that week, Violet’s mother Wendy - a Taiwanese living here in Israel - invited Ruby, Ruby’s Israeli boyfriend, Wen and myself to have a Taiwanese style lunch at her apartment. I was naturally ecstatic.
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Even though it’s been over 12 years ago I still remember it quite clearly. My friends and I would skip class to go play some basketball and hang out and David would ignore our social pressure and go play the piano. Back then, we couldn’t really get it, it was almost social blasphemy to prefer playing the piano over shooting hoops with the guys, but David kept on going with his 10+ hours a day venture into the world of music. I’m really proud of him. Of all the friends I have I think his story is the most amazing one and I am honored that he’s my friend. Down here in the blog, for almost a year now, I …

There comes  a time in every Israeli's life when it's time to join the army. Israeli law sets mandatory service of 3 years for males and 2 years for females. Aside from that, most of those who serve in the army, especially those in combat positions, also stay in reserves till their early 40s, which means about a month or so of military every year. The implications of those simple facts are enormous for the Israeli society and culture, in more ways that I can hope to explain. Last week, my little sister - Shani, now at age 18, joined the army. Plenty of things women can do in the army today, some go and become pilots and fighters just …

This week, I've received a wonderful Chinese-art present from a dear friend. I was very touched and completely overwhelmed - it's absolutely stunning… (BTW - I have no idea what it says on the painting. Help?)  

Spring in Israel has turned in recent years into a full-over-blown summer with temperatures sometimes reaching 35c up on the Jerusalem mountains. While I am annoyed by the effect that it has on me, with the needed move to doing things in the cooler nights, it’s my dog that I was really worried about.

Babby is “officially” a German Shepard, though looking at him you can see that he’s not your typical one and that there’s probably a Husky in there somewhere, which for poor Babby means tons of fur. Babby, now 14, has exceeded the standard life-span for dogs his type but is barely able to climb up the stairs coming back from a walk on the street, and now …