Jerusalem Vegan Highlight

Okay, okay... We got back from Israel a month ago, more or less. I apologize for the delay, but I hope this post (and a few more to come) make up for it!

DanT has my other set of pictures with the photos of the amazing vegan restaurant we went to in Tel Aviv, so I'll have to post about that at a later date. For now I have three photos taken outside of The Ginger Vegetarian Community Center in Jerusalem. We never got a chance to go in, but we walked by it many, many times as it was on our way home to the apartment we rented (on AirBnB. It worked out great!). I regret not getting to meet the people running this fascinating looking place. It is right across the street from the Prime Minister's house! An amazing location in the new city of Jerusalem.

A Chassid (ultra-orthodox) man telling you that god says to go vegan!

Hanging outside of the vegetarian community center was this billboard of sorts. It can read two ways. One says "We love animals, don't eat us" and the other says "we love our lives, don't eat us". One sentence can say both things as the word on the top left hand side, "haiyot", means animals and life. Hebrew is a pretty fascinating language.

Also, I recommend that anyone planning a trip to Jerusalem, email the people at Ginger Vegetarian Community Center and see if there are any events happening. (the site might be mostly in Hebrew, but most Israelis speak very good English) They have a vegan restaurant there! It's called Mahatma Vegan Kitchen. If you go, let me know how the community center was!

Oh, and in case you missed it, there is a kitten sleeping in the bottom of this sheet/sign. See below for a kitten close-up!

So friggin' cute!

Israel has a huge feral cat problem. You see cats everywhere. I have another good cat picture in my Tel Aviv photos which I'll try to get soon! They do have trap-neuter-release programs in Israel, but progress seems to be coming along rather slowly. The cat "problem" has not gotten noticeably better since I've been traveling to Israel over the last 20 years. Thankfully, it rarely gets too cold in most parts of the country, so at least the kitties don't have to worry about keeping warm!

Coming up, a review of Tel Aviv's vegan restaurant mini-chain, Buddha Burgers and the Tel Aviv vegan scene.

Winter Wonderland Bake Sale!

Hello internet visitors!

There is a big event coming up that I need to let you guys know about. So, NYC has a Sea Shepherd chapter and we are having a bake sale!

So, you can see the details above, but I am going to reiterate them here:
When: This Sunday, January 23rd from 12:30 to 5:30
Where: Mooshoes, 78 Orchard Street
Why: To raise funds for Operation No Compromise! To continue fighting the Japanese whale killers!

I'll be one of the volunteers there to help answer your questions, so if you can make it out on Sunday come find me and say hello! I'm baking chocolate chip cookies. Come buy some! It is for a really swell cause. Sea Shepherd is the only group taking direct action to protect our oceans. Besides, who doesn't love whales??

Will you be attending the bake sale? Hope to see you there!

Being Better

Hi everyone! The end of December was a busy one for me, with a trip to Israel (which I'm sure I'll get to in a later post) and holidays, little time was left for much else. But since I returned on the 5th of January I have had some time to think (between the moments of jet lag). And what I've been thinking about is resolutions. It is so cliche, of course, to think about making changes to your life only around the new year, but with everyone else in the world mentioning it how could I not!

But I didn't want to make a stupid resolution that I couldn't keep. And exercising more is a life goal, not a once a year resolution for me. Though I will be trying to take good care of my body this year, I wanted my resolution to be more then that.

I decided on Being Better. It sounds so simple, but for me it can be really hard. Some of you know me personally, but I imagine that 90% or so of my readers do not know me in real life off of the internet. I can be angry and impatient. Humans give me the most trouble, obviously. Perhaps it was nurture over nature, growing up in New York City. Impatience here is a way of life. But my resolution is not to be less impatient, it is to Be Better. What I mean by that is to not let my anger or impatience cause me to react in a way that is wrong or cruel. There is so much injustice in the world, and a vast majority of the injustice is perpetrated on innocent animals who have no voice that sometimes I forget to treat my own species the way I treat all the other species. Kindness, patience, respect, love, open-mindedness. I'm working on showing a bit more of those towards every living being.

This directly correlates to mood, obviously. I am trying to be more positive. I think one will contribute to the other. Positivity will lead to kindness, and vice versa. I'm finally taking that advice that I have been given forever by everyone: Just breathe.

I hope you all see a positive change in me this year, though it will be harder over the internets, obviously! Hopefully I will get to meet some of you in person this year (California readers out there? I'm coming your way for a vacation!!), and you can meet the life-loving girl that I believe I truly am at heart. I'm just going to try to let that girl shine more. I am going to Be Better this year. I believe it will help me make a bigger difference in the world both for human and non-human animals. And myself.

I hope you will join me!