Thursday of chanukah was a relaxing day. I mean, the laundry and dishes still need to be done. But then Thursday night, we (the adults) attended our first wedding in Israel. We carpooled with some camp friends (I say this as though we are fifteen, but we are actually all adults now!) The wedding was beautiful, but so different than an American wedding. In Israel, everyone gathers around the chuppah in a scrum of sorts, and then suddenly, people start walking down the aisle and you just kind of part and make an aisle. And it was outdoors in December. A bit cold but a beautiful setting. It was so nice to be included in the Simcha of friends. Definitely fun.
Friday we had a chanukah baseball game tournament. The three younger kids play baseball here. And FYI, baseball in Israel doesn't help your Hebrew because mostly Americans play. But anyway. I finally got to see the kids play. My girls are the only girls on their team and I was happy to see that the boys seem to treat them as equals.
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| Those are my people at 1st, 2nd and center |
So we drop them off and I go in search of coffee (of course). Except the game was in a town near us that I had never been to. After a fruitless search, I call friends that live there (same ones we went to the wedding with) to ask where to buy coffee. She said instead to just come over and she would make us coffee. She actually made us coffee and served us cake. And she had bathrooms. Bonus!!!!!
Okay, on to shabbat. Finally we had dinner at my ulpan bestie's house. We have been trying to get together for a while. The boys went and davened (prayed) at ancient Maccabi ruins. Right? That's not something you can do anywhere but here. We had a lovely dinner with my friend and her family and her guests.
Before we went I reminded my kids to be friendly. Sometimes at meals with people they don't know, they either sit silently, or they stand behind my chair and only talk to me. I'm not a fan of either of those options. Well, I think maybe my youngest took my talk to heart a bit too much. He seriously spoke to her guests for hours. I couldn't make him stop. It was like a one man show, if that one man were 4.5 ft tall and had too much caffeine. Oh boy.
And finally, the last night of chanukah won't disappoint you. First we lit candles with the kids. Not easy to get a good picture but I always try.
Then onto the adult fun. Our neighbors apparently get together for an adult only chanukah party. This year it was on the last night of chanukah. I wasn't sure what to expect. So I cooked the food I was asked to bring, and went over. Turns out that they play a trivia game. You might remember that we also played a trivia game when we all went away together for shabbat. That one was in Hebrew and by the time I understood the question, I was way too late to answer. But this time... The game was in English. Yes, the organizer was translating everything into Hebrew. But hello. Finally something in my language. We started off pretty weak (okay fine, I didn't recognize Donna Summer because I thought she was white!!) but in the end, these Americans won. What did we win????? Bragging rights and redemption. Muuuuwahahhh!!
Oh yeah. And we had fun with our friends.
On Monday everyone finally went back to school. And I returned to ulpan. We are preparing for our oral exam so I am super nervous. Think good thoughts tomorrow because I'm the last one on the schedule to take the exam.
Tuesday there was a school strike. So this is new to us (although not the first strike since we've been here). So Leor stayed home while everyone went to school. (different unions) At 8:45 am I found out via Facebook that his school would open at 9am. Ummm, okay. Good notice! So I called him from ulpan and said, get your bus pass because school is opening now! He wasn't that thrilled.
Also on Tuesday in ulpan, (when I wasn't trolling Facebook for info on the strike) we went over our answers to some of the possible exam questions. Such as tell me about yourself in ten sentences or more? What do you plan to do after ulpan? Why did you move here? Etc.. So I'm half listening to the answers of my classmates because I've heard it all before. I think the teacher could tell that we were lethargic because she said that after our break, she was going to be harder on us, like the KGB. Ummm, okay then. FYI, KGB in Hebrew sounds really funny.
Okay. I shall end this with a funny story half from ulpan and half from home. Towards the end of the day yesterday we read a story about the history of Krembo. Krembo is an Israeli snack food. Or actually it came from Denmark 200 years ago and made it to Israel 40 years ago. That's right. I'm now in the know about the history of Krembo. It's like a cult food here. So we read the story and my teacher surprises us with Krembo to eat. Except I hate Krembo so I saved mine for my wonderful hubby who still eats like a teenager.
Then at dinner last night, I read the story (in Hebrew of course) to the family. I stopped a few times to make sure they understood it. Because one child speaks Hebrew constantly and three children have never uttered Hebrew in my presence aside from a word here and there. So I don't know what they know. Anyway, then I get to the part of the story where it gives statistics on how people eat their Krembo. When I read the line, and x% eat their Krembo by putting it all into their mouth in one bite, all of my kids started cracking up.
So there you have it. They understand Hebrew. That is my proof!! That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
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