The sun sparkles through the windows of my parents' house in Arizona. It's morning time, and while it rises over the valley and makes its way into the homes of people and the desert crevices surrounding, we stir awake. It happens around 8am every morning.
We've been seeing people. The same people again and again as we journey across lands and jungles, through the air and on the sea. Months apart, we've been seeing the same people.
My own story as a surfer has been short and sweet so far, having been out there with a board, most recently in Bali, only a handful of times. Still, however young a story, it’s been enough of a journey to understand the incredible wisdom at the core of the sport. And like many other sports, the physical realization of this wisdom is life-changing.
Did you know that Aviv and I shared a certain look in our eyes exactly a year ago today? It was a look of telepathy. A magic realization where we both knew at the very same moment that New York was a dream that had already been fulfilled, and that it was time to move on.
And we're back! From surfing in Lanzarote and Tenerife. 2/7 of the Canary Islands that rose from the sea...
Cacti and prickly pears; organic greek farming. Finally, sacred yoga. Buddha (and enlightenment) in blue + white Cathedrals.
שמיים ומים שקופים. יוונים שנראים כמו לטינים. כוכבים שגלויים לעין ומערכות סולאריות שפשוט לא היו שם לפני…נראה לי. מסעדות עם גינות, כל אחת מהן. טלאים קטנים ושפנים שעומדים בדרך
What a different life we're living on our own time... And man, have we been living! I know that it's been a few weeks since I've made an update—so I'm adding even more from Tel Aviv here first—before moving onto Greece, which we returned from last night.
After 9 years, 156 metro cards, 102 tacos, 1,034 umbrellas, 7 apartments, and 4 hurricanes, and 1,000,000 brunches, we are starting a new chapter. Here's to a new adventure, and our flight outta here in 5 hours. See you in Israel, everyone! :)
In the spirit of 11 more days left in NYC, I thought it would be fun to share the top 11 places that I've dined/worked/been present in for the past month. Here's a handful of places to (ful)fill yourself in this crazy city! :)
One thing is for sure: there's nothing like being an observer in this city.
It's like putting on special lenses as you step out to walk the streets, careless and free. Suddenly, everything you witness in this place radiates magic. Despite the sirens and angry cab honks, despite the millions of pairs of legs stressfully stomping bodies back and forth—uptown and downtown, East River to Hudson—despite the hustle of people bumping shoulder to shoulder, there is peace of mind as an observer here. Can you believe it? This is what it's like to be a tourist...and I waited 9 years to finally feel it.
Another thing I waited 9 years to do here?
Compost.
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The sun sparkles through the windows of my parents' house in Arizona. It's morning time, and while it rises over the valley and makes its way into the homes of people and the desert crevices surrounding, we stir awake. It happens around 8am every morning.
We've been seeing people. The same people again and again as we journey across lands and jungles, through the air and on the sea. Months apart, we've been seeing the same people.
My own story as a surfer has been short and sweet so far, having been out there with a board, most recently in Bali, only a handful of times. Still, however young a story, it’s been enough of a journey to understand the incredible wisdom at the core of the sport. And like many other sports, the physical realization of this wisdom is life-changing.
Did you know that Aviv and I shared a certain look in our eyes exactly a year ago today? It was a look of telepathy. A magic realization where we both knew at the very same moment that New York was a dream that had already been fulfilled, and that it was time to move on.
And we're back! From surfing in Lanzarote and Tenerife. 2/7 of the Canary Islands that rose from the sea...
Cacti and prickly pears; organic greek farming. Finally, sacred yoga. Buddha (and enlightenment) in blue + white Cathedrals.
שמיים ומים שקופים. יוונים שנראים כמו לטינים. כוכבים שגלויים לעין ומערכות סולאריות שפשוט לא היו שם לפני…נראה לי. מסעדות עם גינות, כל אחת מהן. טלאים קטנים ושפנים שעומדים בדרך
What a different life we're living on our own time... And man, have we been living! I know that it's been a few weeks since I've made an update—so I'm adding even more from Tel Aviv here first—before moving onto Greece, which we returned from last night.
After 9 years, 156 metro cards, 102 tacos, 1,034 umbrellas, 7 apartments, and 4 hurricanes, and 1,000,000 brunches, we are starting a new chapter. Here's to a new adventure, and our flight outta here in 5 hours. See you in Israel, everyone! :)
In the spirit of 11 more days left in NYC, I thought it would be fun to share the top 11 places that I've dined/worked/been present in for the past month. Here's a handful of places to (ful)fill yourself in this crazy city! :)
One thing is for sure: there's nothing like being an observer in this city.
It's like putting on special lenses as you step out to walk the streets, careless and free. Suddenly, everything you witness in this place radiates magic. Despite the sirens and angry cab honks, despite the millions of pairs of legs stressfully stomping bodies back and forth—uptown and downtown, East River to Hudson—despite the hustle of people bumping shoulder to shoulder, there is peace of mind as an observer here. Can you believe it? This is what it's like to be a tourist...and I waited 9 years to finally feel it.
Another thing I waited 9 years to do here?
Compost.
We have exactly 29 days left until we take our one-way plane ticket to Tel Aviv. Other than plans to be in California for July and August—the rest will be TBD. We’re flying by the seat of our pants…and as you know, we've minimized those pants to roughly 2-3 pairs each. Cheers to trading stuff for adventure!
There were so many wonderful moments to write about while we were in Panama — and if I had my way, I would probably write till Part 15. But seeing that our trip ended almost 4 weeks ago, it is time to start looking ahead again. So here we are, with a couple final tales from Panama—and a whole ton of pictures to document all the other moments I could have waxed poetic about for days.
Clearly, the people and the sights of the morning are gifts—open windows to peek into the way modern society lives here in Coco del Mar, in all their intimate moments. And I think those are the moments where you can really catch the pulse of a place. Finally, I feel it—and it’s all about the people.
And that wind followed us to El Valle from Playa Chumico; or perhaps it's more correct to say we chased it down to its origin—in El Valle where the mountains touch the sky as the valley deepens and dips. The wind finds pockets of Earth to settle in—and we found the largest one yesterday at Rodrigo + Regina's mountain home.
Our first day in Panama. We arrived after the sun had set last night — and the drive from the airport was mostly pitch-black. The only clues of the terrain were in the lights from the highway; glimpses of tree shadows and marinas passing by.
I've been wanting to write this update all week. From the moment I stepped out onto Orchard Street and into the City on Monday morning after we flew back from Arizona; with the city smells of Chinese food and piles of trash accepting us back with open arms. We woke up on Monday after spending a week in the desert and honestly, I missed this. I missed it all.
I am thankful for all these things. My brother + sisters; my mother and father(s)—this Arizona sun and these Arizona homes and people and their stories that make them what they are.
These things are wonderful, and wonderful things mean nothing without gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving!
First, the news is true! We finally get to leave Wooster Street! The new tenants signed the papers on Friday. We'll be out of here completely come Wednesday of this week. :) A celebration is in order!
When we made the decision to sell everything, we had no idea where to start, we just knew that we wanted to sell, and we wanted to sell fast.
After being pleasantly surprised by how well we did selling all of our belongings to become minimalist, I decided to write this, knowing that what we learned from this experience may be extremely helpful to others. Whether you're looking to sell a single item, or everything you own, keep on reading!
Throughout the extent of our journey thus far, the #1 question we've received has been: "how were you able let go of all that stuff?" — well, the right encouragement helps!
I started thinking about how from the moment we are born we start collecting things—we become owners of things. Take baby Omri, for example, he's already the proud owner of his very own stroller, multiple blankets, a crib, and more baby clothes than you have care to count, amongst many other things. All this stuff we collect. Obviously, a baby doesn't have much choice—but when we get to that maturity level where we do have a choice, it's interesting that we never stop to consider: how does this really fit in my life? (both physically and metaphysically). SHOULD this really fit into my life?
And our final packing round begins with the last sale we made this week—one full of jewelry, our 2 remaining tables, Halloween masks, +. We have our three most important "home" decorations ready to accompany us, and yes, you guessed it! That money in the subject line is the 10% of our project that will be going to an NYC charity to help support the struggle against homelessness.
On Friday + Saturday, we said goodbye to our Kilim rug (sorry Adnan, we'll have to wax-poetic about another piece of decoration!), the wonderful Restoration Hardware Baker's rack, and our sound system. In the process, we added more nic-nacs for sale on the site (see here!), we made some new friends... and through them we may have found two options for apartments we might want to inhabit come the winter time! Chelsea and the East Village—here we come...? We shall see!
My Teta (grandmother, in Arabic) has lived in the United States since 1973, inside the same house off Miller Rd in Swartz Creek, Michigan.
Teta was born in Beirut, and then relocated to Vienna briefly with my Jido (grandfather) and the twins (hi momma!) before making their way to Senegal, Africa for 14 years. From there, the family moved to the USA, and they have been here ever since. Clearly, Teta got her fair share of world travel early on—and ironically enough, in a time where the globe was much less accessible than it is today.
There was a moment last night, where I was washing the dishes after dinner. Putting the small saucepan away in its spot beneath the kitchen island, I suddenly had a flashback to seeing this piece of furniture for the first time, when the previous tenant of our Wooster St loft was living here.
So the results are in! Yesterday we emptied our piggy bank into an Eataly shopping bag, and lugged the coins over to the nearest penny counting machine to get the exact count, just as we promised.
Last night, after everyone picked up their new pieces of furniture and decor, we were eating dinner as this piggy bank was staring at us.
We made another new friend yesterday! She climbed the stairs to our loft around 7p to come in and inspect the Anthropologie Folding Tables she found on our site... and she left adopting them both, plus a few little extras... :)
We fall asleep accidentally—exhausted, accidentally—after weaving our way in and out of the streets surrounding Aguacate and Lamparilla. We’re sprawled on the bed in the descending darkness of the afternoon of our first day in Havana, and something wakes me after 20 minutes.