After a long break....

Well apparently I have been neglecting my blog. Which means that I have had time to really gather some fascinating not at all embarrassing moments. Or maybe it has been so long that I have already forgotten most of those moments.  Ummm, or something like that.

Another holiday, another cake

In that time, Israel has held elections, which means a day off for most people!  After voting, we finally took the kids out to celebrate report cards from ummm, like four months ago.  Cool.

Dessert is really why we came

I think we left off before Pesach began.

Before Pesach, the usual fun activities:

Three kids went camping:
One went as a counselor for the little kids (no picture)
One went on a survival overnight thing
One went on a regular camping trip

You might be thinking, but you have four kids who like camping.
One kid competed in the Israeli taekwondo championship so she missed this camping trip

But it all seems so long ago, so we will just skip right to the holiday.

Passover (Pesach)

You might be thinking, Pesach in Israel is just like it has always been in America.  Well, definitely not, for a few reasons.

#1 - you have not lived until you've experienced one Seder per year.  You might think that two are more fun but let me tell you, nope!

#2 - kitniyot -something that I never even heard of until I was probably a teenager and never impacted my life until I moved here.

#3 - the whole country is vacationing it seems

Finally managed a photo before the Seder

Must have sufficient grape juice supply

Matza Jumbles - the best and only dessert necessary

Okay, so this is not my first year experiencing one Seder.  My first time was the Pesach of 1997 when I was living on Kibbutz Sa'ad and my adoptive family took me with them to Haifa with my "father's" side of the family.  One Seder with 30 or so relatives gathered in an apartment (and me of course).  I did not understand anything that was going on but everyone was having fun.  The grandfather was asking pesach trivia questions and tossing nuts at the kids that got the correct answers.  The teenagers tried to help me by using some English but all I remember was being asked if I wanted any of the heavy (liver and heavy are the same word in Hebrew).  And then suddenly the Seder is over, you go to sleep and its basically almost chol hamoed (intermediate days).

My point is that for me, having one Seder makes it more enjoyable because I can really focus on it and not have my mind racing about what I need to do for the next Seder.  And this year I even managed to be at my Seder because while I was not assigned to work Seder night I was assigned to work bright and early the next morning (wake up at 5am)  so we had the Seder at home, just the six of us and it was awesome actually.  The kids asked so many questions and we had lots of interesting discussions.  They were not happy that it was just us at home but once we started I think they really enjoyed themselves.

Kitniyot - if you are not familiar with these little guys, well, it is a whole new world here.  Basically, to keep it simple, kitniyot are certain legumes and such that Sephardi Jews can eat on Pesach but Ashkenazi Jews cannot.  So back in NJ, basically all of the kosher for Pesach food was kitniyot free and a small section for those who can eat kitniyot.  Here in Israel it is basically switched, so now I have to carefully inspect every single item for kitniyot.  So now I am inspecting each item to be sure of what it is and then also for the presence of some whiff of kitniyot.  I am still waiting to become Sephardi.

Vacationing - so it is not that different from what a lot of Jews do in the USA for Pesach, take time off from work and go on trips.  It is just that we did not used to do that because my husband always worked on the intermediate days of Pesach.  So even though I have always been off he has not.  But this year, I decided that I wanted to do a big family vacation because the kids are growing up and soon they will begin to start  the army and I don't know when we will all be able to vacation together.

Anyway, way back in October (when I was getting jealous of everyone vacationing for Sukkot) I booked us a vacation for four nights up north.  I did this of course without knowing if I would be able to get the days off form work.  Because while a lot of the country is on vacation, my job runs 24/7.  And we are not allowed to take official vacation days for any holiday.  So I discussed with my boss like five time between October and April. (I am not annoying, I am persistent)  I work three shifts per week, so I can play around with my shifts and take a few days off without taking vacation.  But my boss does the scheduling and I needed her to remember and be on board.  It is possible that for the weeks leading up to it, I left her a note in the biweekly shift schedule requests we have to submit.

Long story short, somehow my boss managed to work it out that I had the last four days of Pesach off and the family vacation was on.  We headed to the north to spend two days doing some light hiking/nature walks/seeing ruins and two days doing nothing but relaxing.  We stayed at a Field school, which is similar to a youth hostel but they are connected with the nature in the area, run trips, and do other neat things.

Also - they are all kosher and at least this one cooks WITHOUT KITNIYOT!!!

Fancy table sign for us

Oh and also it s a super affordable vacation for a family.  Hotels in Israel are very very expensive and as a larger family we need two rooms, so we do not vacation to hotels with the kids.  We save the hotels for the adults.

Anyway, loads of fun at the field school.  For the end of Pesach the guests at the field school were as follows:
A smallish group of non-religious people (I know this because we had separate meals for the last two days of Pesach because of timing)
One huge family group of like 50 people
One other English speaking family who are friends of friends of ours
Another random family
Us

So now the hubby and I are planning to emulate this family and come back in 15 years with all of our kids and hopefully grand-kids.   Because they were having the best time and we just kind of tagged onto their davening and meal times. Yay Israel.

Pesach - success
Family Vacation time - success
Kids beating me in every board game - what else is new.
Me laughing hysterically because I cannot beat them - always

Israeli Memorial Day

So for Israeli memorial day, you have probably (I mean of course you have) already read my Facebook posts about how good Israel is with ceremonies and really getting to the meaning of the day.  Just our smallish town ceremony is filled with thousands of people and kids from every youth group in the city.  In fact, the 12th graders from each youth group run the program and every year they do an amazing job.  If you want more information, see my Facebook.

Israeli Independence Day

So my favorite day of chaos during the year.  I actually do not enjoy dressing up for Purim, but I love dressing up for Independence Day here.  I love the craziness the general sense of euphoria and the kids running around even crazier and less supervised than usual ;-)

Since we have been here, our eldest and his school band have been performing at one of the high schools which is down the street from us.  So we go there to hear him and we catch the other bands, but then leave before the main performers arrive because we are old people (just ask my teenagers).  We then head to the neighbors for a BBQ and hangout.  But this year, like last year, I ended up with the overnight shift.  So I went to work all dressed up and decorated the NICU a little bit.  We spent the daytime BBQing like the rest of the country and just relaxing and celebrating the eldest's birthday.  A nice day, without being stuck in the crazy traffic like last year. I am sure I will make some fun plans for next year.

Work

Let us begin with a little work anecdote from just the other day. I was working in the NICU and was having a pretty good shift. It can get pretty stressful up there but I was keeping to my schedule, nothing crazy had happened as of the first 7.75 hours of my 8 hour shift. (you see where this is going)

Then a baby needed a new IV. Like a really small baby. Like about 1.5 lengths of my hand, if that. I don't have huge hands.

Anyway two doctors come to do the IV and and find a good spot, right by the armpit. Why yes, we do have fascinating places for an IV that I never knew existed. Anyway, they do their thing, I'm helping them and charting and finishing my work. Another nurse is in the room helping me because end of shift stuff can make you late for the van home.

So, I'm writing my report. We write notes by hand which has probably lent to some hilarious spellings by me. Mid writing, I realize that I'm not sure of how to spell armpit in Hebrew. So instead of writing it wrong by accident, I just say to this room which now has two parents, two doctors and another nurse, hey guys, how do you spell this word, is it this letter or this one. I got three simultaneous answers. Which, if I may brag, was the way I had already spelled it. Win one for me both in spelling and admitting when I need help!

More Hebrew confusion (what else is new)

So one shift at work, I'm in the med room preparing medication, along with two other nurses. We are discussing which needle to use to pierce the vial of medication (don't ask) anyway, they tell me to use a certain one because the other needle can cause little pieces. (חתיכות) to go into the powder and then it is unusable.

So I'm like, hold up, hold up. So a חתיכה is a little piece. But a חתיך means like a hottie??  I mean, isn't that confusing?  You know I will use those improperly. 

So this then launched the three of us into a discussion of the terms, to, too, and two in English and their and there.  They were not familiar with the trifecta of they're.  So, we had some fun in the medication room, comparing language difficulties and I think it gave them a better sense of the daily struggle.

And no worries, all medications were delivered to the proper patient without any pieces.

And despite all of these little language bloopers, I love my job and I am so glad I decided to push through the hard parts and get to this point.  My coworkers have for the most part learned to maybe (maybe) speak a little bit more slowly.  None of them switch to English (aside from the other English speakers) and the parents of the babies are also understanding when sometimes I do not understand their question.  They will ask me in a different way or I will ask for help.  And like I say to all of the parents, all of their babies get free English lessons from me.  I fear the telephone less, but I still prefer that someone else answer it for me.

Only in Israel (or, opportunities we never had in NJ)

So as some of you know, my kids have been doing taekwondo for many many years.  The bar mitzvah boy has been doing it since Kindergarten (so 8 years), one daughter since 2nd grade (also 8 years) and the other two did it for six years but now have found other activities.

So the daughter who still does taekwondo, has a class in our town once a week and travels to Jerusalem once a week with the sparring team.  Her team competes in Europe a few times per year but due to being shomer shabbat she has not yet been able to go.  But this time, her age division was competing on a Sunday so she was invited to go to the competition in Italy..  She did not win (but she did lose against the girl who eventually won first place).  She had a really awesome experience.  I mean, hello - Italy!  I have never been to Italy.  Sadly, she was not in an area with kosher food (but also she doesn't really enjoy eating) so no kosher gelato this time.  But she had a great time, now has one European competition behind her and she still loves the sport.  That's all one can ask for.