Menachem's Birthday

Today is Menachem's 61st birthday and we spent all day celebrating. I went to Menachem and Devorah's house this morning and waited there until Amir joined us. We all piled in the car and drove about 20 minutes to a Brazilian style steak house. There we met my cousin Carmit, her husband Shani and their two kids Shachar and Shai.

Amir and Shachar.

This is the first time I've had red meat since I arrived in Israel nearly three weeks ago, and I definitely made up for lost time. Amir ordered a dish for us to share: An entire kilo of meat. Beef, lamb and chicken. Steak on a sword. Delicious but serious overkill. This lunch brought me back to my "Basar Tuesday" days in Champaign. If you want to be grossed out, the old url is still online for some reason: http://www.ews.uiuc.edu/~kagin/basar_tuesday/

Menachem and I at lunch.

Shai is absolutely beautiful. She is six months old now. I missed meeting her by a week when I was here in March. Hopefully I will get to know her pretty well. Carmit already asked me about babysitting. I spent most of the post lunch chat time playing with her. She is a very active baby with a really strong grip, and she loves to laugh. Just love her!

Meet Shai!

After lunch Carmit and her family loaded the car and headed for home. We came back to Menachem's for a while to rest. I had the chance to call home and my parents got to wish Menachem a happy birthday. At 4:30 we rolled out for Netanya; I was on my way to seeing my first Israeli soccer game.

The family at lunch. Carmit is holding Shai with her brother Amir next to her. Devorah is sitting on the right and Menachem is partially blocked by me.

Menachem is a big Maccabi Haifa fan. He has been going to games since he was 16 years old. Of course it doesn't hurt that Haifa has a history of success that is both lengthy and recent. They won 3 consecutive Premier League championships as recently as 2006. Unfortunately, Haifa is not the powerhouse it has been in the past (they lost 4 players to free agency during the offseason), and they lost to Maccabi Netanya 2-1.

This is Menachem BEFORE the game. You can imagine how pleased he looked afterwards.

The Netanya soccer stadium is a dump. Apparently they call it "the box in Netanya." It actually reminded me a lot of Wrigley Field, but without the charm. It was old, small and crumbling. The bathroom (there was only 1) was filthy and poorly lit, and the pitch looked like the outfield grass after a Sting concert. Plus there is a short bleacher section on one side of the pitch and balls kept being kicked onto the street. Reminds me very much of balls flying onto Waveland on a hot summer day.

The Netanya colors are yellow and black. I have always felt this is the worst color combination in sports. Who wants to look like a bunch of bumblebees?

Of course if the stadium is a Roman era relic, the atmosphere in the stands was pure college football. I say this with the utmost reverence: these fans are fucking insane. They stood the entire game, singing and chanting, waving their M. Haifa scarves and screaming at the top of their lungs. The chants were very creative, and generally so dirty that they made me blush. I won't print them here in English, but as a bonus for those of you who read and understand Hebrew, I offer this little gem:
!נתניה זונה! נתניה זונה! נתניה מוצצת את כל השכונה

Haifa fans react to a first half goal.

The ride back home was somber for a few minutes and then loosened up. We stopped at a strip mall where one of Amir's restaurants is located so he could pop in a check up on business, and got ice cream afterwards. What a day! I finally got back to the dorms around 11:30. There is a home game next weekend against Beitar Jerusalem that I will most likely be going to with Per and maybe some other people. It was so much fun, I can already feel myself being drawn in. I want to close by once more wishing Menachem a happy 61st birthday, until one hundred and twenty. Today was his birthday, but I had such a great time it sure felt like mine.

The Haifa faithful performing one of their cheers.

One more gratuitous shot of Shachar and Shai, just because.