Where shall I begin? First, as mentioned earlier, we moved into an awesome neighborhood. Let it suffice to say that they refer to our street as a kibbutz. Some examples to help you better understand the situation here.
#1 - every shabbat afternoon, my street gets together for what they call "The Parliament" I have no idea why they started calling it that. Anyway, they basically set up tables and chairs (that I think they bought together) and set them up in the alley which is our street. Anyone who feels like coming brings a bit of food, maybe some leftover Shabbat dessert, some fruit, some beverages, or you know, because this is Israel, someone brought grapes that her relative grows at his house. Then we sit and chat. Now, of course the main language is Hebrew but people help us out. I can usually follow most of one discussion, but then when five conversations begin, in quiet Israeli fashion, I lose my focus and I just sit and smile. Yesterday's discussion included some fun topics, such as, do we want to hold a communal meal before the Chagim (yes, we do), who is getting married and when, four children is not a large family (oh, how this is so different then the US) Basically, just a nice time chatting with adults or at least listening, and watching the kids play. Of course, mine were all at scouts, so we were kid free!
#2 - apparently our street is going on a tiyul (trip) together. Anyone who wants to join from our street is going away together for a shabbat which includes a tiyul. Of course we are going. Fun! Class trip here we come!
#3 - do you have a question about anything? Just ask on our neighborhood WhatsApp group. Someone or many someones will have the answer. And even if you do not have a question , just follow other people's questions. Usually someone makes a joke or two and it is loads of fun.
That is all about my neighborhood for now. Moving on to other interesting topics.
Ulpan (language classes)
Today is my first full week of ulpan. Some interesting things that happened today. First, some new people joined my class. Now in a class of less than 20 people, we have people from the USA, Canada, France, England, Holland, Australia, South Africa, Colombia, and Brazil. Pretty crazy and cool right? So there we are siting in ulpan and I hear a small commotion behind me. I look and there is the tiniest lizard ever just crawling around on the floor. Ha! That was unexpected. Everyone started moving their bags and one girl tried unsuccessfully to catch it. Eventually I was worried that someone would step on it so I managed to catch it in my paper and I put it outside on a tree. Hopefully it will live a long and happy life knowing Hebrew, since he sat in on most of our class. Oh yeah - ulpan was also good. Me and my trusty Hebrew Verb book will become very friendly. Ignore my poor English -I am learning a new language here!
Also, if you have read my earlier posts, you will remember that while waiting in the Israeli DMV (and no, we still don't have a license) and speaking to a French couple, the woman said Oooh-la-la, and I decided that my day was complete. Well, I guess that is more common than I thought. Because one of my French speaking friends said it in class today. I was looking around like, OMG, she said oooh-la-la, but no one else even noticed, Bummer.
About living the good life. I am very happy that I have the opportunity to study Hebrew as my "job" for now. We have been very blessed by my husband's company (may they continue until 120) and for now, this allows me to be home, taking ulpan and adjusting to Israel and helping the kids to adjust. Also, Leor's school ends at 12:45pm, so I am also the chauffeur until he can learn to ride the city bus.
Food
Okay, so I won't even go into detail on this one, but OMG food is so good here. No joke, we were at someone's house for a meal and I smelled watermelon. I mean, I couldn't even see it, I smelled it from the next room and all I could think was, I really hope whatever that smell is, that they are serving it to us. Thankfully they did. Tomatoes here are amazing (see my post on one child actually eating a tomato). And I will not even start to discuss what it is like to go to a cheese counter where everything is kosher and you just choose, and it is all delicious. The amount of cucumbers we have eaten in the past month is not even normal.
And while this is not technically food, and without going into detail, let me just say that a few days ago, hubby and I went shopping for bike locks, could not find what we wanted, passed a liquor store and stopped in to buy one thing. But well, everything was kosher and we ended being fully stocked. So come on over whenever! Bring cheese.
In closing, I love my neighborhood, the food and even ulpan, especially on days when a lizard makes an appearance in the room.
Not sure where you live, but when we were in Israel a few weeks ago and my daughter got sick (pink eye) I went to the Wolfson clinic in Jerusalem. It was very easy to see a doctor and get a prescription. The clinic is for mainly foreigners who have different insurance. I just submitted the paperwork to my insurance and hope to get some kind of reimbursement.
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