I go to meet a friend for breakfast. I had a day off from ulpan today and she had the time, so finally, we were able to hang out. We have a lovely breakfast, something I always wanted to have in the USA. (PS, NJ needs more kosher breakfast options, or, everyone should just move here).
Anyway, it's all good, then we have to leave because apparently our kids get out of school really early every single day. She has an errand and I also have an errand in the mall. I am supposed to drop off a paper with the water company that has an office at the mall. She tells me the floor to go to, I get out of the elevator and all I see are medical clinics. I walk around with my water paper, past the women's clinic, orthopedic clinic, diabetes clinic and 14 bathrooms or so. But, no offices. I give up and go back down. Only now, I am at a different exit and I cannot figure out what happened. So I go outside, go back through security (no, I am still not carrying a gun, but thank you for checking) and I re-enter the mall. I find my way back to my car underground, get out of parking spot and feel all confident. I should add that this is the first time that I drove to the mall all by myself and parked my car. Thank goodness I found a spot!!! (note that I am still driving the tic-tac)
So now I am leaving the mall. I have my parking ticket and i am holding it because I do not want to get honked at for holding up the line. I stick it in the machine so that it opens the bar to let me out. Except it won't let me out. It is yelling something at me which I finally realize means that I owe 6 shekels. I am desperate now, I see cars behind me. I finally get over my Hebrew speaking fear and ask some guy if I can pay here. He says no, I have to go back inside. Okay great, except about six cars (all with Israeli drivers) are behind me, so how exactly???? Like a boss (teenage kid slang) I put my car into reverse and make everyone else back up so I can return to the mall and figure out how to pay . It takes a while, a few dirty looks from people and a lot of pitiful looks from people, but I turn the tic-tac around, figure out how to pay and finally, (sof-sof) I stick in my ticket and the magic bar lifts and I am free from the mall.
I would like to point out that the last time this same friend and I went to the mall just to hang out together (circa 2006) I actually got locked in the parking lot because I did not have cash and the ticket booth did not accept credit cards. I will not go into that story, but let's just say I drove around and begged for money and wrote some random woman a check for her $5 in cash,
Back-to-School nights.
Girls
This past week, we attended two back to school nights. One was for the girls and one for the boy. At the girls school, we had to split up, since you know twins, etc.... So I go to one class and nightmare, we had to go around and introduce ourselves. At least I was not first. But even saying five words in a packed room of Israelis is not the way I want to start off a night of listening to Hebrew. Anyway, I survive that moment, thankfully. Next up, the teacher begins by showing us a short video clip. I immediately see Hebrew subtitles, so I think to myself, "Yes! This is in English so I will understand the movie and the subtitles are for everyone else." Well, the joke was on me, because the video was in Spanish with Hebrew subtitles. Oh joy! So okay, I understood half, between my Hebrew and my one semester of taking medical Spanish. Movie ends, then she gives a whole introduction to class, etc... I really could not follow because she was speaking so quickly. But she is very nice and that was enough for me.
At the end, she asks if there are questions. Now, I am a Back-to-School night veteran, and every year in NJ the same exact questions were asked. "why is there so much homework?" "how are you going to teach this?" "why can't we send this for lunch?" "how much time each night do they have to read, etc...." I expected the same in Israel. Nope. There were exactly two questions asked.
#1 - what is going on with the lockers? (apparently there was some sort of balagan, chaos, with how lockers are distributed. So this was followed by three more questions about the lockers. For those wondering, the Hebrew word for lockers is 'lockerim'. Okay, that gets sorted, sort of.
#2 - what is going on with the microwaves and can we just collect money and put one in this classroom? It seems to be cultural that every Israeli child has a hot lunch at school. Because I am sitting there like, who cares? My kids just take some food and eat it (or not). But the microwave (microgal in Hebrew) was the next hot topic.
Was even one question asked about the education??? Nope. And I am totally fine with that. The girls seem happy, their teachers seem lovely and eventually the girl will pick up the Hebrew and be independent in school. The goal here does not seem to be, sit down, be quiet and get good grades. What was repeated at every school so far was that they want to develop the whole person and not just the person who is the top of the class. And even as a perpetual student, I say, "Hooray for that!"
Boys
So, a similar event at the boys school. First, we all gather at the outside amphitheater. Because, you know, it will not be raining on back-to-school night, you can have outdoor events. The principal begins to speak and at first, I am following what he says, with Jon helping me along. Then all of a sudden, I just cannot follow anymore, and all I hear him talking about is blah blah blah, Facebook, blah blah blah, Facebook.
Okay, eventually I am able to start understanding some of what he is saying again. And I think the basic idea was that as parents, we spend so much money on cell phones and things like that for our kids. But instead, we need to spend time with them. Take them on trips, have dinner with them, sit with them when they are doing work, and let then know that they are not alone in this world. And at no point during his entire speech did I feel like he was just saying stuff just to say it. I really felt like he believed in it. Now maybe it was a language issue, but I liked what he had to say. Others who were there can continue filling me in on what was actually said.
Next, we head to the 9th grade class of our son. We had already met the teacher before school began. Anyway, he gives a little talk on what is going on in school, points out that we are new olim, announces that it s perfectly fine for the boys to eat and drink during class, as they are teenage boys and they are always hungry, etc... He gave a good speech, from what I could understand. He asks for questions. This time there is only one question.
#1 - what is going on with the microwaves and can we all donate money and buy one for the class. And because we are in Israel at a religious school, someone points out that we need to buy two. No questions about the education or anything. Like all Jews all over the world though, we are all worried that our kids will starve!!!
On the way out of the school, we were speaking to the teacher and he again reiterated that here in the school, they are concerned with each boy and that they develop into good people and it is not just grades and stress. Jackpot!
Overall, an eventful few days, good reports on our big kids, our little kid seems like he is fitting in just fine. And some exciting news. The kids are going on a scouting overnight!!!! Is that too many exclamation points???
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