It's hard to believe we've been in Israel for a month already. It hasn't exactly been a smooth ride, there have been lots of challenges. That said, I never imagined we'd be this settled only a month in. Nehama's been at her new job for over a week now and I'm fairly settled into my new Yeshiva schedule. Matis still freaks out when we drop him off at Gan every day, but they claim he's happy the rest of the day. I suspect they may be drugging him (only partially joking), does anyone know where I can buy spy cams in Israel?
A couple weeks ago, Matis had a fever and we suspected his ear infection from before we left might have come back, so we went to the Doctor to have it looked at. The doctor said it was just a virus and we should expect Matis to come down with something new every couple weeks, because Israel has viruses that aren't common in the US and parents always send their kids to Gan sick. Unfortunately, he seems to have been right. His eyes started bothering him on Friday and got worse through Shabbos. He seemed to be better on Sunday, but we kept him home as a precaution. This morning his eyes looked clear again, so we sent him to Gan. In the middle of the day Nehama got a message that translated to something like "Matis is highly contaminated, pick him up now".
After I took him to the doctor and got his prescription, we walked around the neighborhood of Shaarei Chesed, where we had initially planned on living. I felt a little bit of regret for not having found an apartment there. It would've been nice to have the doctor within walking distance, not to mention people all around who speak English! Ultimately, I think we made the right decision. We didn't come here to live in Flatbush. Having the in-laws down the block is far more valuable. As evidenced tonight when my FIL drove us to the doctor while my MIL came over to take care of Nehama, who was unfortunately also not feeling well. Our neighborhood is beautiful and safe, even if I have to break my teeth on Hebrew and French to talk to anyone. It would be nice to live in Shaarei Chesed for a few months and who knows, maybe it'll work out that we can.
Our first month here, we had so much that we knew we needed to get done. Now, it's not so easy to know what we need to do. My goal for the next month is to learn enough Hebrew that the cashier in the mini market down the block doesn't need to show me my total on a calculator so I'll understand :-) (again, only partially joking).
Monday, February 23, 2015
Saturday, February 21, 2015
SNOW DAY!
People here get really excited about snow. They cancel school, at the mere mention of snow in the forecast. The roads close and buses stop hours before the first snowflake falls from the sky and the stores are packed with people stocking up on survival gear. Coming from Detroit, where snow is common albeit not as common as people think (we're not Cleveland or Buffalo), it's kind of funny to watch.
The forecast was nowhere near accurate this time (they said up to 15"), but we did get around 6". As soon as the roads were coated in snow, we had fun watching the panicked drivers on the Begin from our living room window. There were cars stopping in the middle of the road, unsure what to do, while others sped by as if the roads were dry. They don't have normal snow plows here and the tractor things they use crawl down the road at a snail's pace.
In the morning our power went out, so I went outside to see if human life had survived the terrible storm. Thankfully there were a few people outside, still I needed to investigate further. I picked up some snow and formed it into a ball, lo and behold it was the same snow that I've known all my life. It turned out to be excellent packing snow, so I attempted to build a snowman. Embarrassing secret: I've never actually built one by myself before. I tried several times, about 20 years ago, but never could finish. This time I found it quite a bit easier and in about 10 minutes I had one built. For the sake of speed and stability, I built more of a snow totem pole than the typical snowman (picture below).
Then I set out to find an open store to get some food and candles. Walking down our driveway I found one of my neighbors (there are more than 500 people living in our complex) attempting to drive his tiny KIA. He was stuck within feet of the garage, spinning his wheels, doing everything anyone familiar with snow driving knows you shouldn't do. I offered to help push him out, but he said he had it under control. Two minutes later, I pushed him out and he wisely said he was going to go back inside. Miraculously, the mini market down the block was open and I was able to stock up on everything we needed.
As I walked back to our apartment I helped two other drivers get out of the snow. Both of them thought they were invincible in their SUVs with two wheel drive. When I got back, I was somewhat surprised to find the guy I helped earlier was still stuck in the driveway. His wheels were turned in the wrong direction, spinning furiously, going nowhere. Another neighbor was attempting to instruct him, but neither of them knew what they were talking about. I went over and offered assistance, which he declined, and warned him about inevitably damaging his transmission if he continued what he was doing. He said he knew all about it and continued rocking the car back and forth, spinning the wheels and sliding out of control. I've helped plenty of people push out their cars before and I've been helped many times as well, but I never experienced anyone as stubborn as all the Israeli drivers. Oh well, I tried to help, but I wasn't going to waste my time arguing with stubborn people and I didn't feel safe walking on the sidewalks near them, so I went inside and left them to their own devices.
In short, snow in Israel is the same as snow everywhere else, just way more exciting and stubborn. The whole thing is blown out of proportion, but that's exactly what makes it so fun.
Here are a few pics I took of Jerusalem in the snow.
The forecast was nowhere near accurate this time (they said up to 15"), but we did get around 6". As soon as the roads were coated in snow, we had fun watching the panicked drivers on the Begin from our living room window. There were cars stopping in the middle of the road, unsure what to do, while others sped by as if the roads were dry. They don't have normal snow plows here and the tractor things they use crawl down the road at a snail's pace.
In the morning our power went out, so I went outside to see if human life had survived the terrible storm. Thankfully there were a few people outside, still I needed to investigate further. I picked up some snow and formed it into a ball, lo and behold it was the same snow that I've known all my life. It turned out to be excellent packing snow, so I attempted to build a snowman. Embarrassing secret: I've never actually built one by myself before. I tried several times, about 20 years ago, but never could finish. This time I found it quite a bit easier and in about 10 minutes I had one built. For the sake of speed and stability, I built more of a snow totem pole than the typical snowman (picture below).
Then I set out to find an open store to get some food and candles. Walking down our driveway I found one of my neighbors (there are more than 500 people living in our complex) attempting to drive his tiny KIA. He was stuck within feet of the garage, spinning his wheels, doing everything anyone familiar with snow driving knows you shouldn't do. I offered to help push him out, but he said he had it under control. Two minutes later, I pushed him out and he wisely said he was going to go back inside. Miraculously, the mini market down the block was open and I was able to stock up on everything we needed.
As I walked back to our apartment I helped two other drivers get out of the snow. Both of them thought they were invincible in their SUVs with two wheel drive. When I got back, I was somewhat surprised to find the guy I helped earlier was still stuck in the driveway. His wheels were turned in the wrong direction, spinning furiously, going nowhere. Another neighbor was attempting to instruct him, but neither of them knew what they were talking about. I went over and offered assistance, which he declined, and warned him about inevitably damaging his transmission if he continued what he was doing. He said he knew all about it and continued rocking the car back and forth, spinning the wheels and sliding out of control. I've helped plenty of people push out their cars before and I've been helped many times as well, but I never experienced anyone as stubborn as all the Israeli drivers. Oh well, I tried to help, but I wasn't going to waste my time arguing with stubborn people and I didn't feel safe walking on the sidewalks near them, so I went inside and left them to their own devices.
In short, snow in Israel is the same as snow everywhere else, just way more exciting and stubborn. The whole thing is blown out of proportion, but that's exactly what makes it so fun.
Here are a few pics I took of Jerusalem in the snow.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
SNOW!
Unfortunately, the 60 degree sunny weather that we had for our first few weeks in Israel is gone. Last week we had crazy sand and dust storms with very strong winds. This week was a bit calmer, but it rained on and off all week. The weather forecasters were initially calling for 1-2 inches of snow over the next two days. This city is not made to withstand snow, so they activated the "Everyone panic and act without thinking" protocol. Schools in Jerusalem closed today at 12PM and roads into the city started closing, even though the earliest forecast didn't expect snow until 5PM.
Now some forecasts are saying that in areas of Jerusalem with elevations over 700M (read: where I am) might get 40 centimeters (15.748 inches) or more! I'm very excited! I don't want the electricity to go out and I don't want anyone to get hurt or stranded, but...I did accidentally wear my boots on the flight here. I was thinking that it was a waste to have them here and I put them away thinking I wouldn't use them for a year, but now I might need them.
I love storms, Nehama does as well, so at least she doesn't think I'm crazy (well, not for liking storms anyway). I get all excited and track the satellite and radar images and the winds/temperatures aloft, as if I know what the outcome will actually be. This storm does look bad, but I'm expecting to be disappointed. To be continued...
Now some forecasts are saying that in areas of Jerusalem with elevations over 700M (read: where I am) might get 40 centimeters (15.748 inches) or more! I'm very excited! I don't want the electricity to go out and I don't want anyone to get hurt or stranded, but...I did accidentally wear my boots on the flight here. I was thinking that it was a waste to have them here and I put them away thinking I wouldn't use them for a year, but now I might need them.
I love storms, Nehama does as well, so at least she doesn't think I'm crazy (well, not for liking storms anyway). I get all excited and track the satellite and radar images and the winds/temperatures aloft, as if I know what the outcome will actually be. This storm does look bad, but I'm expecting to be disappointed. To be continued...
Monday, February 16, 2015
Annoying Americans
One of the biggest lies people told me about Israel is that you don't have to know Hebrew to live here. Calling it a lie might be a bit harsh, but it's certainly not the whole truth. Maybe if you're in a Seminary or Yeshiva full time and surrounded by Americans, you can get by with no Hebrew, but not if you're actually living here. It could be that in some places in Israel where there are lots of Americans things are different, but not where I am.
Here are a few of the things I found impossible to do in English:
Here are a few of the things I found impossible to do in English:
- Anything related to the Misrad Hapnim, ironic considering they deal with foreigners all day.
- Opening a bank account. Holy crapple kugel that was an ordeal (maybe I'll write about it later)!
- Shopping at most non-tourist stores, even inside Malcha Mall.
- Ordering food in restaurants that aren't in touristy areas.
There are more that I'm forgetting. Fortunately, Nehama understands and speaks a lot more Hebrew than she admits to. It's also helpful to have my in-laws down the block to help us fill out all the forms we don't understand. I'm hoping to learn Hebrew myself, I think I've picked up a fair amount so far, even if I still have the dear in the headlights look whenever someone speaks to me in Hebrew.
I started to notice something interesting. I was in a restaurant, getting some schwarma (I'm not saying how many times I've eaten at Schwarma places, but I can now place my order in Hebrew ;-)). I always try to at least greet the person taking the order and ask if he speaks English, in Hebrew. This particular guy spoke English fluently and exemplified efficient order taking. After I got my food a group of American teenaged Yeshiva boys came in loudly and went to place their order. The first boy said "Give me a schwarma on a plate" and suddenly the cashier "forgot" how to speak in English.
As I watched the group places their orders and eat, I thought "wow, this must be what people mean when they talk about annoying americans". They were so loud and obnoxious and showed no respect for the people whose country they were guests in. Once I saw this, I started to see it wherever I went, especially on public transportation and on Ben Yehuda street. I'm sure it's not just Americans that do this (actually, I'm not sure at all), but it makes me not want to be recognized as an American. At the very least, it's good motivation for me to work on my Hebrew. I've tried speaking French to people in our neighborhood and turns out my French is not as good as I thought...shocking! :-)
Sunday, February 15, 2015
FOMO
One of the hard parts about living in Israel for a year is that Matis and I both suffer from FOMO (bubby and zaidy: that means fear of missing out). We like to be where the action is, Nehama on the other hand prefers to nap (I think this post is gonna get me in lots of trouble, oh well.). The other week the whole family was in Florida for midwinter vacation, as much as I wanted to be there too, the fact that it was 70 and sunny here helped make up for it. This week there are a few big things we're missing out on. My sister's 25th birthday was last week, my father's 60th birthday was yesterday and my cousin's wedding is in a few days and we're missing out on all the fun. Really it's the other way around, everyone there is missing out on the fun we're having here, but still it would be nice to have been a part of these events and there will be more that we miss as well iyH.
A month before we moved, we made a party for Matis's first birthday. For the party I made a simple slideshow video. You can see it here, if you're so inclined (who talks like that?). I expected everyone to be annoyed by it, it is rather long, but it was our party so I figured they'd indulge us. Some of our friends may have been rolling their eyes a bit, but on the whole it went over well, especially with family who watched it multiple times. It helps that they're obsessed with Matis.
When you do anything in our family, it automatically becomes your responsibility until the end of time, so when the family wanted to make a video for my father's 60th birthday, who do you think they called? Hint: it wasn't the ghostbusters. It wasn't as easy as the one I made for Matis, because we only have digital pictures of a small portion of the last 60 years. So, I had to rely on everyone to take pictures of old pictures and send them to me. Of course, most of the good ones didn't come in until last night after I thought I was already finished. Fortunately, I was able to get most of them in without ruining the timing sequences. I'm going to do an experiment and see how long it takes from when I post this link, until I get in trouble and have to take it down. Even though we couldn't be there, it was nice to have some part in the celebration.
It's supposed to be -11 in Oak Park today and an unusually chilly 47 here in Jerusalem. I'm hoping that with the right amount of terrible weather, everyone will come here for vacation. I can dream, it's not so mean right?
A month before we moved, we made a party for Matis's first birthday. For the party I made a simple slideshow video. You can see it here, if you're so inclined (who talks like that?). I expected everyone to be annoyed by it, it is rather long, but it was our party so I figured they'd indulge us. Some of our friends may have been rolling their eyes a bit, but on the whole it went over well, especially with family who watched it multiple times. It helps that they're obsessed with Matis.
When you do anything in our family, it automatically becomes your responsibility until the end of time, so when the family wanted to make a video for my father's 60th birthday, who do you think they called? Hint: it wasn't the ghostbusters. It wasn't as easy as the one I made for Matis, because we only have digital pictures of a small portion of the last 60 years. So, I had to rely on everyone to take pictures of old pictures and send them to me. Of course, most of the good ones didn't come in until last night after I thought I was already finished. Fortunately, I was able to get most of them in without ruining the timing sequences. I'm going to do an experiment and see how long it takes from when I post this link, until I get in trouble and have to take it down. Even though we couldn't be there, it was nice to have some part in the celebration.
It's supposed to be -11 in Oak Park today and an unusually chilly 47 here in Jerusalem. I'm hoping that with the right amount of terrible weather, everyone will come here for vacation. I can dream, it's not so mean right?
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Back to the...Yeshiva
Growing up in the wonderful suburbs of Detroit (The sarcasm is in your head, I'm being sincere...not), I had a lot of bad experiences with school/yeshiva. The issues I had might have existed in other towns, but the lack of choice that goes along with living in a small town, was definitely detrimental. I'm not commenting on the current school system in Detroit, it's changed significantly in the years since I finished school.
I was a difficult student, to be sure (nothing's changed in that aspect), but I did have a handful of teachers who somehow got through all my defenses and actually helped me learn. The complaints I have are with the other teachers who didn't make much of an effort and more importantly with the school system which wrote kids like me off completely. It's true that I didn't pay attention in classes, follow instructions, do homework, or follow the rules. But, I did want to learn, I always wanted to know more about lots of things, although not necessarily what they wanted me to learn. Instead of making me feel stupid for not keeping up with my classmates, they could have taken advantage of my intellectual curiosity in other subjects. They had no flexibility and offered no choice in classes. For example, I learned absolutely nothing about Computers in Elementary school, yet in High School when I finally had a half decent Computer class the teachers let me skip the class because they had nothing to teach me that I hadn't already learned on my own.
That's all the complaining I'll do for now, the point is that because of the way I was treated in school and my immaturity all I wanted to do was get out of school and start working. Of course, this lead to huge gaps in my education, most of which I was able to fill in on my own. The area I missed out on the most was Limudei Kodesh, which is not easy to make up on your own. For a long time I've regretted not staying in Yeshiva longer and especially not learning in Israel for a couple years like most of my friends did. This all played a big part in our decision to spend this year in Israel and for me to go back to Yeshiva.
This isn't my first time attempting to go back to Yeshiva. In September 2011 I learned for one day in a Yeshiva in New York and planned to stay there for a while. The next day I flew to London to meet my wife's parents and between dating, traveling and getting married, I never made it back to Yeshiva. This time I'm more committed. I initially planned to go to Ohr Someach, a Yeshiva with many positive attributes, not the least of which is that they allow married men to learn there for free. I mentioned this to my cousin, who said "Don't go there, you should go to Shapell's". I never heard of the place before, but in the next week two other people also recommended it, so I did more research.
As luck would have it, the next week a Rav from the yeshiva was in Detroit and I went to meet him. Everything sounded good, so I signed up. Somehow I managed to delay filling out the application and didn't actually get accepted to the yeshiva until a week after we moved. Turns out the Rosh Yeshiva was in Skokie with my Father in-law many many years ago (I added the extra many, in case he's reading this :-)), who as the dorm counselor, would wake him up every morning. I'm not saying that's why I was accepted, but...
After much procrastination, I was finally supposed to join the Yeshiva early this week. Unfortunately, the namesake of the Yeshiva passed away and his levaya was this Tuesday, so my start time was pushed off until Wednesday. Because of the 7 hour time difference, I was busy with work on Wednesday morning and almost forgot that I was supposed to meet the RY at 9:30AM. I remembered just in time to run and catch the bus which took around 40 minutes to get me there (confession: I was lost walking for 10 minutes from the bus stop). I walked in the door around 2 minutes early, only to find that the RY and the guy in charge of tuition both had to leave for another levaya. Fortunately, I was able to meet with another Rav who talked to me about my previous learning and my goals for this year.
We decided that it would be best to start in a shiur that focuses on reteaching fundamentals of Gemara. Turns out there are two other guys here from Detroit, one of whom is a sincerely nice fellow (that looks as weird in type as it sounded in my head). There is also another guy who just joined the yeshiva (the zman started three weeks ago, so we're way behind) so we've been catching up together. The guys in the Yeshiva seem to be mostly good and they are all here because they legitimately want to learn (most of them are college graduates who took time off from starting their careers, so they're not just playing around). I'm kind of torn now, because going to the Shiurim, I realize there are a lot of fundamentals that I need to learn, but at the same time I'm finding it frustrating that some of the guys in the Shiur don't seem to understand what's going on, even at the somewhat excruciatingly slow pace we're learning.
Nehama pointed out that patience is not really my thing I should probably work on that, as it wouldn't be smart to move to a higher Shiur without picking up the fundamentals that I know I'm missing. I also enjoy the Shiur overall, because the Rav has a good sense of humor and that's always been the key to my learning. In any case, two days is not enough time to come to any conclusions, so I just have to wait and see how it goes.
I was a difficult student, to be sure (nothing's changed in that aspect), but I did have a handful of teachers who somehow got through all my defenses and actually helped me learn. The complaints I have are with the other teachers who didn't make much of an effort and more importantly with the school system which wrote kids like me off completely. It's true that I didn't pay attention in classes, follow instructions, do homework, or follow the rules. But, I did want to learn, I always wanted to know more about lots of things, although not necessarily what they wanted me to learn. Instead of making me feel stupid for not keeping up with my classmates, they could have taken advantage of my intellectual curiosity in other subjects. They had no flexibility and offered no choice in classes. For example, I learned absolutely nothing about Computers in Elementary school, yet in High School when I finally had a half decent Computer class the teachers let me skip the class because they had nothing to teach me that I hadn't already learned on my own.
That's all the complaining I'll do for now, the point is that because of the way I was treated in school and my immaturity all I wanted to do was get out of school and start working. Of course, this lead to huge gaps in my education, most of which I was able to fill in on my own. The area I missed out on the most was Limudei Kodesh, which is not easy to make up on your own. For a long time I've regretted not staying in Yeshiva longer and especially not learning in Israel for a couple years like most of my friends did. This all played a big part in our decision to spend this year in Israel and for me to go back to Yeshiva.
This isn't my first time attempting to go back to Yeshiva. In September 2011 I learned for one day in a Yeshiva in New York and planned to stay there for a while. The next day I flew to London to meet my wife's parents and between dating, traveling and getting married, I never made it back to Yeshiva. This time I'm more committed. I initially planned to go to Ohr Someach, a Yeshiva with many positive attributes, not the least of which is that they allow married men to learn there for free. I mentioned this to my cousin, who said "Don't go there, you should go to Shapell's". I never heard of the place before, but in the next week two other people also recommended it, so I did more research.
As luck would have it, the next week a Rav from the yeshiva was in Detroit and I went to meet him. Everything sounded good, so I signed up. Somehow I managed to delay filling out the application and didn't actually get accepted to the yeshiva until a week after we moved. Turns out the Rosh Yeshiva was in Skokie with my Father in-law many many years ago (I added the extra many, in case he's reading this :-)), who as the dorm counselor, would wake him up every morning. I'm not saying that's why I was accepted, but...
After much procrastination, I was finally supposed to join the Yeshiva early this week. Unfortunately, the namesake of the Yeshiva passed away and his levaya was this Tuesday, so my start time was pushed off until Wednesday. Because of the 7 hour time difference, I was busy with work on Wednesday morning and almost forgot that I was supposed to meet the RY at 9:30AM. I remembered just in time to run and catch the bus which took around 40 minutes to get me there (confession: I was lost walking for 10 minutes from the bus stop). I walked in the door around 2 minutes early, only to find that the RY and the guy in charge of tuition both had to leave for another levaya. Fortunately, I was able to meet with another Rav who talked to me about my previous learning and my goals for this year.
We decided that it would be best to start in a shiur that focuses on reteaching fundamentals of Gemara. Turns out there are two other guys here from Detroit, one of whom is a sincerely nice fellow (that looks as weird in type as it sounded in my head). There is also another guy who just joined the yeshiva (the zman started three weeks ago, so we're way behind) so we've been catching up together. The guys in the Yeshiva seem to be mostly good and they are all here because they legitimately want to learn (most of them are college graduates who took time off from starting their careers, so they're not just playing around). I'm kind of torn now, because going to the Shiurim, I realize there are a lot of fundamentals that I need to learn, but at the same time I'm finding it frustrating that some of the guys in the Shiur don't seem to understand what's going on, even at the somewhat excruciatingly slow pace we're learning.
Nehama pointed out that patience is not really my thing I should probably work on that, as it wouldn't be smart to move to a higher Shiur without picking up the fundamentals that I know I'm missing. I also enjoy the Shiur overall, because the Rav has a good sense of humor and that's always been the key to my learning. In any case, two days is not enough time to come to any conclusions, so I just have to wait and see how it goes.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Going to Gan
As much as we love Matis and as well behaved as he is, he can get a little crazy when he's stuck at home all day. He loves to be around other kids and when we were in Detroit he loved going to "school" everyday at Akiva. I'm starting Yeshiva this week and Nehama is starting her new job tomorrow iyH (more on both of those soon), so we decided to send Matis to Gan. Fortunately, there's a gan just down the block, which is pretty much in between our apartment and my in-laws and they were able to find room for him.
Unfortunately, they don't speak English at all. We figured it would be ok and Matis would learn Hebrew while we're here, or French.
We took Matis for his first day on Sunday, expecting him to be there from 8:30-4:00. When we walked in the door I was completely overwhelmed, everyone was yelling "shalom, boker tov!" and there was loud music playing and kids dancing all over the place. Matis thought it was hilarious and within minutes he was crawling around the room with little girls chasing after him, trying to squish his cheeks (no joke). The lady in charge, who speaks a bit of English, told us to stay for a half hour and then leave and pick him up a half hour later. Not what we were expecting at all. We talked her into letting him stay for two hours, but they ended up calling us an hour later to pick him up because he was crying when they weren't holding him.
I don't understand what they expect from 13 month old babies. The next day we dropped him off and there was a different teacher there. He was not happy to be there and started screaming as soon as she picked him up, so we stayed and tried to calm him down. All the little kids kept waddling over to try to play with him, but he had no interest. We felt like we were torturing him, leaving him with strange people who don't even speak his language, but the teacher said we should leave and see how it went. He stayed for almost 6 hours and the teacher said he was happy and playing with the other kids all day, but he didn't eat much food (with Tuna and Chummus for breakfast, I don't blame him).
Which brings me to the next interesting thing about this Gan, which is the reason we felt comfortable sending him, they don't allow kids to bring their own food. They have a cook that makes fresh food and they don't give any junk food. Matis unfortunately takes after Nehama and has some food allergies (nuts and carrots, yes I said carrots), so it's good to know there won't be any nuts around him (considering that all the kids here eat bamba all day, this is a big deal). They don't believe he's allergic to carrots and they serve soup with carrots every day, but it's not a serious allergy, so if they forget it will probably just cause him to break out.
With all the noises and dancing going on, we didn't notice at first, but they hardly have any toys for the kids to play with. In Detroit Akiva had so many toys, I wanted to stay and play sometimes. I'm curious to see how they keep the kids happy all day. The only toy Matis had any interest in was the balloons they had all over the place. In Detroit, people looked at me like I was crazy for letting Matis play with a punching balloon while I was watching him closely. Here they laughed when we complained that they were a choking hazard, but they said they'd get rid of them (they didn't).
Going off on a tangent, this is the one thing about Israel that drives me crazy, so far. Parents here let young kids play in the streets and walk to school alone, but yell at me for allowing Matis to crawl on the floor in the store (yes, it's dirty, but we wash him and it's better than having him scream his head off IMO), or for not bundling him in winter clothes in 60 degree weather.
Back on topic, today they made us pick Matis up early because he was making too much noise and waking up the other kids. I thought they meant he was crying, turns out he was just playing too loudly! The nerve of him! I don't know what they're going to do when Nehama starts working and can't just run over there whenever they want to send him home. We're definitely looking into different places to send him, but everyone says this place is so good, maybe we just have to wait it out? The other kids all seem happy, but they also kinda seem like they're in a cult. They all wear sweatpants and sweatshirts every day and walk around like they're really excited to be there. I wonder if the other parents look at us like we're crazy for dressing Matis so stylishly (by stylishly I mean he wears normal baby clothes from Target).
Unfortunately, they don't speak English at all. We figured it would be ok and Matis would learn Hebrew while we're here, or French.
We took Matis for his first day on Sunday, expecting him to be there from 8:30-4:00. When we walked in the door I was completely overwhelmed, everyone was yelling "shalom, boker tov!" and there was loud music playing and kids dancing all over the place. Matis thought it was hilarious and within minutes he was crawling around the room with little girls chasing after him, trying to squish his cheeks (no joke). The lady in charge, who speaks a bit of English, told us to stay for a half hour and then leave and pick him up a half hour later. Not what we were expecting at all. We talked her into letting him stay for two hours, but they ended up calling us an hour later to pick him up because he was crying when they weren't holding him.
I don't understand what they expect from 13 month old babies. The next day we dropped him off and there was a different teacher there. He was not happy to be there and started screaming as soon as she picked him up, so we stayed and tried to calm him down. All the little kids kept waddling over to try to play with him, but he had no interest. We felt like we were torturing him, leaving him with strange people who don't even speak his language, but the teacher said we should leave and see how it went. He stayed for almost 6 hours and the teacher said he was happy and playing with the other kids all day, but he didn't eat much food (with Tuna and Chummus for breakfast, I don't blame him).
Which brings me to the next interesting thing about this Gan, which is the reason we felt comfortable sending him, they don't allow kids to bring their own food. They have a cook that makes fresh food and they don't give any junk food. Matis unfortunately takes after Nehama and has some food allergies (nuts and carrots, yes I said carrots), so it's good to know there won't be any nuts around him (considering that all the kids here eat bamba all day, this is a big deal). They don't believe he's allergic to carrots and they serve soup with carrots every day, but it's not a serious allergy, so if they forget it will probably just cause him to break out.
With all the noises and dancing going on, we didn't notice at first, but they hardly have any toys for the kids to play with. In Detroit Akiva had so many toys, I wanted to stay and play sometimes. I'm curious to see how they keep the kids happy all day. The only toy Matis had any interest in was the balloons they had all over the place. In Detroit, people looked at me like I was crazy for letting Matis play with a punching balloon while I was watching him closely. Here they laughed when we complained that they were a choking hazard, but they said they'd get rid of them (they didn't).
Going off on a tangent, this is the one thing about Israel that drives me crazy, so far. Parents here let young kids play in the streets and walk to school alone, but yell at me for allowing Matis to crawl on the floor in the store (yes, it's dirty, but we wash him and it's better than having him scream his head off IMO), or for not bundling him in winter clothes in 60 degree weather.
Back on topic, today they made us pick Matis up early because he was making too much noise and waking up the other kids. I thought they meant he was crying, turns out he was just playing too loudly! The nerve of him! I don't know what they're going to do when Nehama starts working and can't just run over there whenever they want to send him home. We're definitely looking into different places to send him, but everyone says this place is so good, maybe we just have to wait it out? The other kids all seem happy, but they also kinda seem like they're in a cult. They all wear sweatpants and sweatshirts every day and walk around like they're really excited to be there. I wonder if the other parents look at us like we're crazy for dressing Matis so stylishly (by stylishly I mean he wears normal baby clothes from Target).
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Homesick
My brother Naftali wanted me to write a post about how homesick I am and how badly I want to move back to Detroit right now. Unfortunately, I've never been a good liar. Instead, I thought I'd write a post about what I do, or will miss about Detroit/America.
1.
Oh well, can't think of anything.
Just kidding, maybe.
1.
Oh well, can't think of anything.
Just kidding, maybe.
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Kashering the kitchen
Thank G-d our apartment has an awesome kitchen and came with quite a few pots and pans. Unfortunately, the previous tenant was not Jewish and the kashrus status of everything was suspect. We spent this week running around town getting things we need for the apartment and looking for the most important pan of all, which was not included with the apartment...the cookie sheet pan.
For some reason, none of the department stores had anything that could work as a cookie sheet. Finally we found one at the grocery store...makes sense. Once we had that, I decided that the priority was to kasher the kitchen so I could make chocolate chip cookies. Fortunately, my father in-law is a rav and knows all the relevant halachos (even for ashkenazim) and he was able to help us (read: "do everything") make everything kosher.
The one thing that was left for me to do was leave the oven on the highest temperature for 45 minutes. I got the first part (turning on the oven) done, but as they say "the first thing to go when you turn 30 is your memory" and I forgot to turn it off. Several hours later, during dinner at the in-laws, while my wife was telling a fascinating story, all the sudden I woke up and said "holy tomatoes, I left the oven on!" (or something extremely appropriate like that). My FIL drove me back to our building and I ran all the way up to our apartment. Here's where I need to rewind to the night before when I attempted to kasher the oven, but turned it off after 10 minutes because it was smoking and I was afraid of setting off the fire alarm and evacuating hundreds of people. As I was running up the steps (I think I took the elevator, but that's not so dramatic) I had visions of our apartment looking something like our restaurant. BH everything was fine and there was no smoke at all.
As we drove back to dinner, we passed a lady standing on the street. Turns out it was Nehama (my lovely wife. I think maybe I forgot to introduce her?) who was panicking and saying tehillim on the street, holy lady. Then we all laughed at her and finished dinner. Most importantly, today I made cookies and they taste almost as good here as they did in 'Merica!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Watching the Superbowl in Israel
The Super Bowl is one of my favorite sporting events of the year. I love football, advertising and eating, so what's not to like. Unfortunately, they don't take Israeli viewers into account when scheduling the game (it starts at 1:30AM here). Our apartment came with a 46" TV, which we don't want so we did not continue the cable service. I was unsuccessful at trying to get the service on just for the Super Bowl so I was kinda disappointed. Then I found that you can watch the game online in HD for just $9.99 from NFL.com, so in the end I was able to watch on the big screen in the comfort of our apartment, instead of going to Mike's Place.
This year the game was between Seattle and New England. Nobody likes New England in general, so of course I was rooting for Seattle. This scored me some points with my Father in-law who was born in Seattle and is still a fan. I invited him over to watch the game and we had a two person Super Bowl party. Unfortunately, his team blew the game in the end, but it was a great and memorable game! I'm happy I stayed up for it, even though I felt sick the whole next day and I still haven't caught up on my sleep.
I feel really bad for my FIL and all the Seattle fans and especially the players. It's unimaginable to work so hard and get so far, only to fall short in such a spectacular way. I can relate in a way, being from Detroit. The Lions always find new ways to disappoint, but at least they never give us reason to think they won't. We never really have hope, so we can only be so disappointed. Without hope, you can't have crushed dreams, so what Seattle did in this game is so much more painful.
This year the game was between Seattle and New England. Nobody likes New England in general, so of course I was rooting for Seattle. This scored me some points with my Father in-law who was born in Seattle and is still a fan. I invited him over to watch the game and we had a two person Super Bowl party. Unfortunately, his team blew the game in the end, but it was a great and memorable game! I'm happy I stayed up for it, even though I felt sick the whole next day and I still haven't caught up on my sleep.
I feel really bad for my FIL and all the Seattle fans and especially the players. It's unimaginable to work so hard and get so far, only to fall short in such a spectacular way. I can relate in a way, being from Detroit. The Lions always find new ways to disappoint, but at least they never give us reason to think they won't. We never really have hope, so we can only be so disappointed. Without hope, you can't have crushed dreams, so what Seattle did in this game is so much more painful.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Finding an Apartment
As nice and accommodating as my in-laws are (no, that's not a joke, they really are), it can be a bit much living in someone else's apartment, especially with a jet lagged baby. I set a goal for us to find an apartment within a week, knowing this was slightly unrealistic. We started off on Sunday looking in Rechavia. The apartment we looked at was beautiful and recently renovated, but it was expensive and on the outskirts of town in a kind of sketchy neighborhood. Most of the apartments I found were in the same neighborhood, so we decided to look elsewhere, but didn't cross them off the list yet. We really wanted to be responsible and find as affordable of an apartment as possible, so we went the next day to Ramat Eshkol. The first apartment we looked at made the Telshe dorms that I used to live in look like the Waldorf Astoria. I was willing to keep looking, but the more we walked through the streets, the more we realized that we didn't feel like we belonged there.
We lived in Lakewood for 6 months when we first got married and even there we felt out of place. I'm sure there are other neighborhoods there that would be better for us, but I wouldn't even feel comfortable in the general vicinity. Aside from the issue of feeling like I don't belong there, I was not comfortable from a safety aspect.
We started our search over, focusing on Sha'arei Chesed, but didn't find anything even remotely close to our budget. While we were looking we noticed a listing that was nowhere near the areas we considered, but looked amazing. The good part about it is that it's a 5 minute walk from my in-laws, so free babysitting! It's also in a beautiful, safe neighborhood with incredible views and closer to my yeshiva than the other places we were looking. On the downside, it's in a mostly French neighborhood and it would be hard to make friends there. We decided to take the apartment anyway, because my wife already has friends not too far away and if I make any new friends it will probably be in yeshiva. Turns out our next door neighbors are American and there are other Americans in the complex, so maybe that'll work out for the best. If not, at least my French and Ivrit will get the chance to improve. BH, we got an amazing deal and the landlord is my new BFF. I'm not sure if I mentioned the incredible views, the pictures don't do it justice, come visit us and see in person! Here's a live webcam from our mirpeset (balcony) that will probably not stay up for very long.
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| View out our living room window |
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| Park for the baby |
First Shwarma
I have all these nice sounding reasons for moving to Israel; going to yeshiva, wife being near her parents, etc. What I don't tell anyone is the real reason...better shwarma! So far I've only gone to one shwarma place and while the overall taste was excellent, the shwarma itself wasn't all that good. Any recommendations on where I should go next time?
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