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!
No comments:
Post a Comment