Birthday Celebrations

J and I celebrated my birthday this past weekend.  J treated me to a night out in Tel Aviv.  I much prefer "experiences" as gifts rather than material items, and I thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening with my husband.  My first birthday celebration as a married woman!

Our evening started with dinner at a Thai restaurant, and we enjoyed a view of the Mediterranean Sea and Tel Aviv beach while walking to our restaurant destination.   Thai food is available on practically every street corner in Boston...and is impossible to find in Jerusalem.  I love Thai food and therefore miss Thai food...so it was a real treat! 

  We then made our way to the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center for a concert by the Israel Symphony Orchestra.  What should have been a relatively short journey turned into an adventure when we drove into the ultra-orthodox neighborhood while accidentally navigating our way to the OTHER street named "Shaul Hamelech" in Tel Aviv!   But no worries, we discovered our mistake, quickly dashed back across town, and arrived at the concert hall with minutes to spare.  But we should not have worried...in true Israeli style, the concert started at least 30 minutes late!  

It was a beautiful concert...but not the music we expected.  It turns out that the English website of the orchestra had never bothered to update the concert list for the evening's performance!   Obviously we were in the right place since our tickets granted us entrance to the concert hall.  We were a bit confused by it all, and even double checked the program on the internet on J's phone.  Indeed, the internet confirmed what we thought...we should have been listening to a Rachmaninov Piano Concerto and a Mahler Symphony.  Instead, we were enjoying listening to a choral/orchestral work by French composer Poulenc and a beautiful rendition of Beethoven's 9th.  Believe it or not, I have never heard this rather well-known classical work performed live.  I really enjoyed the last movement of the "Ode to Joy" melody (otherwise known as "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee"...to the hymn singers out there!).  And since that is the hymn we used as the recessional music at our wedding, the music now has emotional meaning as well. 

We picked up a Hebrew program on our way out of the center (even that was an adventure to locate) and entertained ourselves by trying to unravel the mystery while driving home to Jerusalem.  Thanks to my Hebrew class...I now know enough Hebrew to decipher some words!  There it was in plain Hebrew print..."Symphony Concert #6 - Beethoven Symphony 9" and "Poulenc Gloria". 

The adventures of living in a foreign land with a foreign language are ongoing!  No doubt more such snafus will occur in the future.  Stay posted!