Spoiled!

I'll admit it. I'm spoiled. I'm spoiled by the shorter holidays here. How we get more days where we can do more things. In one year, I've basically forgotten how to prepare for a three day holiday. What I mean by that is, I didn't plan any of my meals. Usually I make a nice list of each meal and what I am cooking and then check it off as I cook. This time, I basically bought food. Then I started cooking the food. Then I froze the food. Then I forgot what I had already cooked so I cooked some more food. And then I served food. So it was very unorganized for (ahem) a person who likes things to be organized.  But everyone ate and hopefully no one was hungry. As an added bonus, I still have cooked food in my freezer that I can use for the next set of holidays. Or you know, for when my kids want dinner (every single night!)

News flash: I finally snagged a Rosh Hashana chocolate at Aroma. Thank goodness. I was worried I wouldnt get a picture for my blog!

Now, I know that I promised that in my next blog, I would discuss similarities and differences between my life here in Israel and my former life in New Jersey.

Obviously, holidays are different.
Time in Shul: (when I'm awake enough to go)
Rosh Hashana
Israel 8am-12:10pm
NJ 7:45am-1:00pm (I don't remember exactly) Definitely a fan of the faster pace.

Regular Shabbat :
Israel 8:30-10:20
NJ: 8:45-11:45

Holidays Tunes :
Lots of new tunes, but many are the same. The main difference I felt, was the amount of singing. Here, I feel like the women are very into joining in and singing. It might be because my seat was the absolute front row of the shul (if you want to know anything about the front wall, I'm your gal) But considering how crowded our shul was, I was just happy to get seats. Also, you aren't distracted by anything, except the paint pattern on the wall. If you want to discuss the paint pattern, I'm still your gal.

Food Shopping
In NJ, I did a lot of grocery delivery. It started when I was working close to full time, but had free time at my desk. So I would grocery shop at work. Shhhhh. Then of course, I would occasionally go to the market, and I shopped at the small kosher market in my town for all of my meat. It was pretty laid back, and while it was more crowded before a holiday, it was never crazy.

In Israel, I have learned from my mistakes. Those being that last year I went to actual supermarkets before the holidays. The veteran olim called me on my rookie move. This year, I am rocking the grocery delivery. What that means is that the delivery guy has been here three times in the past week. I should probably invite him for sukkot or something.  Because, since I didn't make a menu, I kept not having things. Also, I went on a baking rampage and went though like 6kilos of flour and 3 kilos of sugar.

Speaking of flour and sugar, did you know that you need to put them in the freezer here? I heard way too many horror stories about pantry moths and such to take any chances. So I get flour, then I need to cram it into my freezer. Reminder that my freezer is smaller than in the USA and I have one instead of two. Then, before using it, I have to sift it. Then I keep it in airtight containers. And while this all seems like a huge pain, I was rewarded last week with finding a super gross (luckily dead) bug in my flour, while sifting. Vindication!

Cost of living :
This is something that people always ask me about. It's hard to compare, but we can try. In America, we owned a home. Also, we are the worst real estate investors ever. We never made money on either of our homes. In fact, when we sold our first home, we had to pay the new owners at the closing. That's how bad we are.  "Hi, so glad that you're buying our house. Please enjoy it. Also, we are giving you this bank check, cause, you know, we just feel generous." Or at least unlucky.

Here, we are renting. First  we wanted to see if we would like this city and neighborhood. Second, we aren't millionaires. If you think housing in NJ is expensive, come to Central Israel! And third, we are pretty happy not to have to deal with major home repairs while still learning the language and such. Bonus, we ended up on this awesome street.

I know that discussing actual money makes people uncomfortable. But I'm Israeli now and they have zero issue discussing money. I mean, when you leave a tip, if you want to put it on your credit card, the waiter says, "How much?" At first that made me uncomfortable, but now it seems normal.

Housing :
We pay about $1000 less per month to rent that we paid for our mortgage. Our place is smaller, but the location is fabulous.

Groceries :
I can't even tell you how many times people have told me that food is so much more expensive here than in the USA. I honestly don't know what those people are eating. Perhaps if you try to keep buying all of your American brands, you'll have an issue. But I did the calculations and we spend almost exactly the same amount, which is approximately $1500/month on food. That includes things like toiletries that I buy at the supermarket and paper goods and meat, etc... I could definitely spend less, but I certainly don't spend more than I did in my former life.  My main American products that I continue to buy: starkist tuna, cereal,  only when on sale, and occasionally shampoo. We use the Israeli brands as well, but if multi grain cheerios go on sale, I probably will own five boxes.

Transportation :
This is a biggie. Public transportation was fairly reasonable both in NJ and here. In NJ it cost my hubby about $250/month to take the bus and subway from NJ to NYC. Here, to take buses and trains to work, it costs about $80. So yeah, pretty sweet deal.

However, owning a car in Israel is like owning two cars in the USA. We paid more for our three year old used "huge for Israel but small for our family" car here, than I've ever paid for a brand new minivan in the USA. But such is life. So we own one car, something we lived with for many years in the USA before switching to two cars, and we are quite happy with one.  Also, if you know me, you know that I hate parking here. I can't even imagine parking a minivan.

Tuition:
Well, you've all heard me talk about this. I basically can't shut up about it. Here, my kids attend public religious schools.  In America, they attended private religious schools. Until I homeschooled them, but that's a whole other blog.

NJ: elementary ~$15,000/kid/year
Israel: elementary ~$250/kid /year

NJ high school ~$27,000/kid/year
Israel: high school ~$1300/kid/year

but you know, I get some kind of discount I think because I have three kids in the same high school. Or maybe I don't get a discount. Maybe it just feels that way because it's so cheap!!! Also, we do have to pay for books. In some schools you rent and in some you buy. Still a small fraction.

Summary
I'd like to reiterate, that as much I complained about tuition while in the USA, it was absolutely not the reason we made aliyah. We made aliyah for ideological and social reasons. We want our kids to grow up here, and experience life in Israel. That's the short story. But the tuition is an amazing fringe benefit.

Yes. Israelis earn less money than Americans. But we have some fabulous benefits as well. Don't let the money scare you. Come with a job (a job in Israel is preferable) but come.

A Few Funnies
Well, this is getting long. I'll end it with a few funnies.

When your kids have school uniforms, which consist of t-shirts that get stamped with their school logo, they often come out in the morning dressed the same.  Then they pose for pictures.

I attended another mother daughter learning event at my girls' school. This time, I'm glad to have understood more of the speeches. And at least I was prepared for the part of the event where 100 girls rush out and start dancing.

The other day, I looked over at my little guy and thought, wow, this is quite the little Israeli you've turned into. Scout uniform and milk in a bag.

And then I received a flyer about the scout sukkot trip. And who made it into one of the pictures? My eldest, except he is wearing his USA boy scout uniform. Haha! (bottom right to find Waldo)

Catching up before the chaos!

The time is just getting away from me. Not enough 'sofa sitting time' for me to write this blog.

Before I begin, how fun are these? I love the little surprises that pop up here. I mean, I don't like that I saw an entire case of sheep heads at the market last week. Ick. But these are fun.

The kids went back to school. And I was so excited because, finally, freedom! And for anyone who thinks I'm just another parent who can't wait to pawn her kids off, remember that I homeschooled my kids for two years and spent five years as a stay at home mother.  But back to the present. I couldn't wait to pawn my kids off. Everyone was hot and bored at home. Mostly because I was furiously trying to get them ready for school and study for my exam.

Finally, they went back, and instead of calm, chaos began. First, everyone needs books and supplies and shirts, and who knows what else for school. And I don't understand half of the instructions. I just told my kids to take pictures of their friends supplies and we will go on that.

And then my exam day arrives. No idea how I did. But the whole process was an experience. About two thousand potential nurses were there to take the exam. Nerve wracking. Especially because there were so many languages going on.. Hebrew, English, French, Arabic and Russian were the main ones that I heard. So now we wait. I would share a picture, but right after I snapped it,  someone else got yelled at for taking a picture. So I'll keep it to myself.

My big plan after my exam was basically to lie on my sofa for a few months and watch Netflix. But being the school nerd that I am, I decided to go back to ulpan. This time level gimmel /daled. I basically talk a good game of wanting to relax, but when it comes down to it, I'm a major school nerd. So anyway, I'm back in ulpan while I wait for my exam results. Thankfully, so far, this ulpan has been really good. I've became a major dork about grammar, because it finally all makes sense. Did I mention that ulpan bestie and I are back together?

What else is going in here? Oh yes, chugim, aka after school activities, aka, omg why are there so many choices. Let's just say that I haven't exactly been economical about it yet. I am letting them try whatever they want and then we will adjust after the chagim. Nothing happens anyway until October here. So the new things we are trying; judo, guitar, electronics, running, netball, flag football. And the old things ; taekwondo, special taekwondo in Jerusalem, and guitar. So lots going on.

Holidays are coming! So the cooking has begun. In the USA, we always had two refrigerators and freezers. Here, I have one and it is somewhat smaller than the USA. Yet, we are still feeding the same number of people.  I'll keep reminding myself that I am living in the land of miracles. The space will get bigger magically. Meanwhile I'll just be happy that I can afford to have this problem. We don't have family in Israel, although in the USA we also didn't do most chagim with our family. Luckily we have made some good friends and we will all be sharing the holidays together.

Victories of the Week!
#1 preteen dress shopping =success
#2 cranberry vodka, ordered
#3 pet shop owner and I had a good Hebrew conversation where he didn't switch to English at all
#4 insurance agent and I had a lovely Hebrew conversation as well. He is also an immigrant, except he came here the year I was born. I didn't share that info with him. Don't want him to feel old.
#5 finally, I feel like I can shop in Hebrew without making a total fool of myself
#6 except the butcher. I can't handle the butcher
#7 saw a show at the cultural center
#8 baked challah twice. Okay, that isn't exactly relevant to Israel, I just wanted you to know.

Funny moments of the week
#1 watching my son and husband move a bed. (child got too tall for his bed, so he now gets the giant guest bed) Pivot!
#2 me parking my  car in my garage every single day. I just can't.

Back to School Night 2.0 x 4
Perhaps you recall my back to school night post from last year. I was so nervous because I barely understood a word. And I was so nervous for the part where parents ask questions. I have four kids and I've been to many many of these meetings. They are all similar. Parents ask about homework  and the curriculum, etc... Well, not in Israel. Last year they asked only about the microwaves and the lockers.

Anyway, this year we had all four kids back to school nights on the same night. It was quite the adventure.  First we head to the sixth grade. He has the same teacher and the same kids in his class as last year. I understood most of what was said, aside from the things I can't understand because I didn't grow up here. Basically, the boys shouldn't act like gangsters, just because they are the oldest in the school. They start crossing guard duty next week I think. I figured I would email his teacher with questions. I always have questions. Oh, we handed over 100 shekel to the PTA, etc... The usual. That I understood!

Then we race to the girls' high school. With twins, we've been running a man to man defense for many years. So we split up and each arrived late to the classrooms. Let's just say that man to man defense works so much better now than it did when they were infants.  Those stories must be told in person though, for full effect. Anyway, we sit through those meetings. We have to go around and introduce ourselves. And guess who had to go first, in a class full of Israeli parents. That's right, yours truly! Thankfully, after my zillion hours of courses, I managed not to panic and I even remembered my name and the name of which child I was there for.  Eventually I hope to meet the teacher of my other daughter. But we had to leave early to catch the very end of my eldest child's back to school night.

Luckily, the next school is next door to the one we had been at. So we hustle over there, and slip quietly into the classroom. Or not quietly, because as we walk in, the teacher says, whoever is last, has to sit next to the teacher. (my son had the same main teacher last year so we know him) I spy an empty chair on the other side of the room. So I make a beeline for that, while pointing to my husband and saying, he is last! So, hubby had to sit in the dunce chair. He said it didn't bother him at all. Personally, I would have died of embarrassment.  Maybe because I spent a few years in after school care sitting in the 'bad chair.' Or because my 7th grade science teacher used to punish kids by drawing a circle on the board and you had to go and stand there with your nose in it.  I'm not traumatized. Really. Some things never change.

Anyway, no one asked about lockers or microwaves or really much of anything. Some complaints about the high school schedule, but overall, a busy but easy night. And the good news is, now we are done. At least until mother daughter night next week, where I get to slice myself in half. Oh, and of course we forked over some more cash for whatever.

Only in Israel!!

And for the only in Israel moments. My youngest child's class went to a program at the big park in our town, on Friday morning. And by morning, I mean 5:30am, with his entire class and his teacher. And tonight, my girls class is headed to the same park from 8:30pm-midnight. You know, just the usual! I think next week or the week after my eldest is headed somewhere until about 3am. I'm waiting for the permission slip for that to come home.

Always something going on here.

Can't wait to update everyone after the first set of chagim. I'm planning a blog showing some of the similarities and differences between my life in NJ and my life in Israel. Stay tuned. 

Until then: שנה טובה! 

School Days 2.0

And just like that, the summer is over (YAY!!!!!!)  I mean, I like the summer.  And I am lucky enough to still be able to stay home (read, I am not licensed to be a nurse in this country yet, therefore I stay home).  And we had a fun summer, but the last three weeks at home were soooo long and dragging.

I must mention this even though it's probably out of order. My girls get a whatsapp a few days ago that their scout group is going to the airport to greet a group of new olim just arriving. So I send them off with their group, on a train to the airport. On the one hand, it's pretty ironic that they are greeting new immigrants. I mean, we have only been here for one year. But on the other hand, look how integrated they have become. They are already welcoming newer people! If your kids aren't involved in activities yet, sign them up!

I spent the week before school entertaining a parade of service people here. We had the alarm company come. Then the installer for the alarm company. The mechanic (amazing pick up and drop off service). Online grocery delivery twice. Oh, and we adopted two guinea pigs. Busy busy. But I'll focus on the alarm company, because they gave me the biggest laugh (aka, actually they were laughing at me).

The alarm company installer comes to the house. I'm already nervous because, hello, I'm going to have to speak Hebrew to him and I barely know words for alarm stuff in English. He arrives and we get off to a great start, because as I'm searching for words and he is trying to help, he tells me that his English is terrible, and then uses one of my favorite Hebrew phrases, chaval al hazman (חבל על הזמן ) which is basically like, oh wow, I can't even believe ( how bad my English is.) Point being, my Hebrew was better than his English. Score one for me!

He goes into my basement/entrance floor, and sees that we have an animal cage. He asks me what is in it. And I totally blank on the word for guinea pig. So I say it in English but that didn't help him. So I said the literal translation in Hebrew. Which is basically a sea fish. Then I suddenly remember the word for it. Except it's too late. He is already dying of laughter, chuckling to himself. Then he tells me that the phrase I used is akin to calling a butterfly, literally a fly and butter. So we both get a laugh.

But let's focus. He spoke to me the whole time in Hebrew because apparently my Hebrew is better than his English, sea pigs aside. And to top it off, we had a conversation about aliyah, etc... because this is Israel, so we all talk. During this conversation, I got to drop the info regarding school tuitions in America, which is one of my favorite things to tell Israelis. The look on their faces. חבל על הזמן!

Then, that evening, the main alarm guy comes to discuss things. His English is quite good so we are speaking to him in a mix of English and Hebrew.  He was all excited and surprised to hear that we have been here for only one year so far. At some point he just stops and says, I just love your accent (meaning, my American accent) and then he proceeds to say, חבל על הזמן!  What he meant was, your American accent is funny and amuses me.  So it was really a good day for me with Hebrew. A bit ironic, since he had quite a thick Yemenite accent :-)

SCHOOL

My boys both went back to their respective schools on Friday, even though Friday is a short day of school here. My little guy's class was in charge of the opening school program. They had been going to school all week for a few hours each day to prepare.

Everyone shows up in their white shirts and navy blue or gray shorts. Everyone that is, except my son. Oh no. He promises me that they can wear any color shorts that they want. So he wore neon orange. At least he was very very easy to pick out in a group of boys. And he didn't seem to mind at all.

My favorite part of the program was seeing my little guy (not so little anymore), who arrived in Israel one year ago, without much Hebrew, not only participate in the program, but he had some lines he had to say into the microphone. And then, he was high fiving all of the little 1st graders as they walked through the lines of 6th graders. So cute!

Bonus. This year I actually understood a large chunk of what the principal and other speakers were saying. Understanding a group of 11 year old boys is another story however.  We will see how back to school night goes this year. Oh well, there is always next year.

Eldest son was also involved in the opening program of his school. He is part of the school band and apparently he spent most of his first day playing the guitar. I wasn't invited to that ceremony, but his band did make it onto the school Facebook page. So at least I got to see what he was doing.

And finally, on Sunday, my girls went back to school. Even though Sunday is a normal school day here, they had just a half day. What did they do in that half day (you might be asking?) Well, first they met their teachers. My girls both have new homeroom teachers who are also both new to the school. One daughter was pretty excited to come home and tell me that she is taller than her teacher. And my girls aren't exactly tall. Let's just say they inherited their height from me. They played a few games in the classroom and won girly prizes like puff balls and then went outside to the amphitheater for a school wide program.

And this school wide opening program was basically what we call at camp, Yom Foam! The 12th graders had the idea of a foam machine and basically all of the girls were playing in piles of foam. Sounds fun to me. Hopefully they will continue having fun and learn something as the year progresses.

ACTIVITIES
I decided to be extra organized this year, and really plan out the after school activities. During the first week, you can try everything for free to see if you want to join. We went to the town wide activity fair where they have a showcase of so many activities. We saw biking, dog training, judo, wrestling, flamenco, roller skating, capoira, taekwondo, sewing, etc...

My girls decided that they wanted to try flag football and netball. Both happen to take place at the high school down the street (score!) so off they went last night to investigate. After a bunch of frantic phone calls, with them telling me they can't find flag football, and me saying, keep looking and ask around, I finally ask on Facebook. Oops. Football hasn't started yet. My bad. But one girls did stay for netball. She was one of two girls there. Ummmm, okay, maybe we need to rethink the sports. Or she can have private netball lessons.

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME...

Today my kids all went for their first full day of school, on the same day. So what did I do? Ditched my studying so I could have coffee with my ladies. Of course, I needed a ride because my car was at the mechanic, having its first, very overdue, tune-up. So my chauffer arrives, we go to the mall and I remember that I need stamps.  I've never gone to the post office alone because it's always crowded and stressful. We walked in today and I was sure it was candid camera. It was empty, yet two tellers were open. Miracles! I considered a selfie but it was too empty to not be so obvious.

We arrive at coffee and after a lengthy discussion of how we'd all like to order a latte and a pastry, we all order the exact same eggs and salad and coffee, like the good socialists we are!! Always fun going out with friends. Especially when they drive you. And you get to stop at the post office and then buy your child a textbook.

Signing off for now, because I have an exam to prepare for. I won't know if I pass or fail for at least a month. So basically I either have one month of Netflix or six months of Netflix ahead of me.

Happy back to school to everyone!