Changes

People can change right?  

One of the things I was worried about (still am of course) with moving here was, would we be able to handle so many changes at once?  We moved from a large home to a smaller one (but bigger than we thought it would be) we would be buying all European/Israeli appliances (which are smaller, work differently) we would be leaving our friends and our kids would be leaving their friends, we would have new foods, different weather, and on and on.  Mostly, I was worried about the kids.  How would they adjust?  What would they miss?  Would they be moping around, pining away for the large washing machine we left behind?  (okay, that one was me)

Now, we have only been here for two weeks, but so far, none of that has come to fruition.  Please don't remind me that school is starting soon, since I know that is when the real challenges will begin.  But for now, let me enjoy myself.  Let me start with the good.  

Child #1 ---My eldest child likes baseball, but has probably played soccer and basketball only a handful of times.  Well, soccer and basketball are the things here.  Anyway, last night he was out at minyan on our corner (have I mentioned that they daven right here on the corner???)  Anyway, he was invited by some neighbors to play soccer.  We saw him drive away in the car with this HUGE smile plastered on his face.  He returned about two hours later disgusting and sweaty and happy.  He said they were teaching him and they promised to go easy on him for a month while he is learning and then they will expect him to play.  Other miracle?  Our car only seats 5 people and we were trying to go to the market and deciding who would come and who would stay.  Well, since one was playing soccer, we could fit everyone else in the car!

Child #1---If you knew that he did not love soccer, you probably also knew about his obsession with guitar and rock and roll.  So, I am browsing through the list of activities for kids.  I am looking for a guitar teacher, and I see that there is one who lives within walking distance.  I send a WhatsApp (because how else do you communicate these days?) and within two hours, we are at the guitar teacher's house, and my child is having his first lesson, and I am receiving a full Hebrew lesson from the teacher's wife.  My brain hurt after that, but I think I caught about 90% of what she said.  So, all of the changes have been good for this kid so far.

Child #4--- We will skip the girls for today, and move onto the little guy.  I might have mentioned that he has already been adopted by the other kids on this block.  On Shabbat he disappeared for most of the day and we occasionally saw him and his new friends when they were thirsty.  He is also making new friends at camp and hopefully learning some Hebrew.  But the highlight of yesterday for this guy?  Buying sunflower seeds at the supermarket.  I mean, it is not like they didn't sell them in NJ, but maybe they were not as prominent or fresh as they are here.  Because buying this guy a bag of sunflower seeds really made his day.  And today when he went to pack snack for camp, he packed them, along with his chocolate sandwich.  Very Israeli!  

Now, back to my small washing machine.  I am sure that it will be fine.  It is actually the dryer that confuses me.  Before I can do a load, I need to empty the lint (okay, fine, I've been doing that for 30 years) but then I have to check this water compartment/condenser thing.  It fills up with water basically every 5 minutes, so I need to empty it.  I do not understand the mechanics at all, so if my laundry is still wet, I empty it and say a little prayer.  Lucky for me, my washer and dryer are on an outdoor porch and there happens to be a drain, so I just dump it.  So if any of my neighbors are getting rained on, please tell me.