Ella is in school and loves it! Anita succeeded in the monumental task of enrollment. Ella had a good time. School is 8 to 1pm and she has to take a breakfast snack. My hope is Ella will learn Hebrew and then be my translator.
Today is Israel's Independence Day. The Air force flies all of the planes around the country and the Navy parades the sea shore. People BBQ Everywhere. I'm sure Tel Aviv was a zoo and I hear that people get so desperate for space they will set up a BBQ in a traffic circle (we didn't actaully see this). 
Here is some perspective on our lives. We live in Ashdod, about 200,000 people but check the physical size 3.5 x 2.5 miles. Most of the housing is 10-15 story apartments. Oregon has nothing on Israel when it comes to controlling urban sprawl. There is a lot of parks here also. The problem is there is only 2 exits in and out of the city and the traffic can be horrible. The bus ride (Intel shuttle) took 1hr 45 min for 25 miles the other night to get home. Next time I'll get out and start walking. Typical time on the bus is 1 to 1:15 to get home. By road bike it is 24 miles and 1:30 to ride. I can also take the car or Mt bike and take the 3rd lesser known exit right by our house that is 6km of sandy road and makes the work commute 21 miles but its still 1.5hrs because I'm riding my Mt bike.
The best thing about our location is we are only 0.5 miles to the sea. The second best thing is we are on the south edge of town. The edge of town is well defined with a fence to the dunes that is a nature preserve. I've seen foxes and antelope there. With all the open space to the south it doesn't feel like we are in the compressed city until we have to fight traffic. We didn't make Petra this weekend, hotels were all booked. It will be a future trip.
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