Trip to Vancouver
AKA, how my daughter got all the way to London with a knife in her backpack
Yes, you read that correctly. I took my daughters to Vancouver for my niece's bat mitzvah. All was good, we had our pre-flight aroma at the airport, they spelled my name correctly, etc. Our flight out of Israel was on time, we crammed ourselves into our tiny seats. I had a vodka and cranberry.
We arrived in London a few hours later, changes terminals and waited to go through security again. Now for all that people complain about Israel, they know how to do efficient security. London - not so much. The line was short but everyone's bag was getting pulled aside. Out of the three of us only one of my girls bags was pulled aside. So I'm waiting with her to see what the issue is, assuming she left a water bottle in her bag.
The security worker says, you have a knife in your bag. I said, I'm sorry, excuse me, but did you say that my daughter has a knife in her bag? Here I am assuming some sinister person has slipped a knife into her bag.
But no. My genius apparently doesn't clean her backpack out. Or she sort of cleans it out. She went from a camping trip to an international trip and didn't remove her flatware from camping. Aka she had a butter knife in her bag. Because we try to be good people and not use disposables too often. The good news, the knife was fine to go onto a plane. Apparently it is neither big enough for sharp enough to do anything. I mean, it probably didn't even cut her schnitzel while camping. And we all got a good laugh, after I bopped her on the head as for not cleaning her bag.
Reminder: I live with four teenagers and the cleaning patterns are fascinating. Fascinating is not a positive word in this case.
Parking
Apparently I can no longer park like a normal human. Here in Israel, I rarely go into parking lots because the spaces are so tiny and I stress not being able to get out. Apparently I have now developed a parking issue.
On my final day in Vancouver, I took myself out early for a final latte and a trip to the drugstore. You know, a place where you can purchase over the counter drugs actually over the counter. This is not the case in Israel. You need a prescription to purchase over the counter stuff. So I just avoid that whenever possible. So this was about 8 am in a suburb of Vancouver. No one was parked in front of the drugstore aside from me and probably the one person working there. But apparently I have forgotten how to park like a normal person, IN the lines. This was after two tries. And normally, I am good at this skill. Oh well, I figured all Canadians would be too polite to park near me anyway.
Good Eats
My kids are totally spoiled in regards to kosher food, first growing up in NJ and now growing up in Israel. I however remember a time when kosher food was harder to find. Like in Vancouver. So I made my own food fun.
I rediscovered that root beer is way too exciting. This is something else I never knew I was missing while being in Israel. Root beer is not a commonly available drink here. But it's super popular where we were, so I rediscovered my love of the fountain soda root beer. My girls were laughing at my weirdness. So of course we took a picture.
Basically I went to the USA and came back to Israel with suitcases full of used books and new snacks
I did some pre-trip planning of where the good used book stores are located and I hit both of them and spent more than planned, but it is Canadian dollars which I just don't convert so I am sure it is fine. We also spent a day in the USA shopping where my girls and I discovered that we don't actually miss Target, but we do miss certain snacks. We basically left target with a trunk full of important snacks, like Cheez-its and Chex Mix. All of the essentials! Oh and plain rice krispies, a much coveted item. And onion powder. Do not underestimate the power of granulated onion powder.
After all of those side adventures, we also made some time to see all of the family ;-)
We were in Vancouver for my niece's bat mitzvah, not only to buy snacks and ibuprofen. My girls had a great week, hanging out with their other girl cousins, and two grandmothers and a grandfather and an aunt. We had adventures to the Olympic Oval, some beautiful gardens, the hotel pool, where there was a massive tournament of underwater handstands, a cool suspension bridge and just generally having fun. For the record my kids had me pose for the bridge photo and I didn't step onto the bridge. I prefer solid ground.
A few funny moments from the Bat Mitzvah.
So there we are, sitting at the luncheon after the bat miztvah, enjoying the delicious food, praising my niece and just in general having a nice time. My brother says to me, hey, there is a table in the back with scotch, what do you think that is for? So I found my sister to ask and she said its for people to drink. My sister does not really drink, so I invite my brother to do a little l'chaim with me. But while we were at the table, we ran into a friend of our parents who was getting ginger ale. That's right, the drink table was full of Canada Dry and whiskey, that is all. I mean, maybe earlier there had been other stuff but at that moment, just those two drinks. So I invite him for a l'chaim. He says he doesn't drink but he will go and invite his table, which was all of my parents friends who I have known since I was baby. Most of them anyway.
Longer story short, in a few minutes time I am suddenly pouring 10 shot glasses of scotch and was nominated to make a toast. If you're wondering who nominated me, it was my mother, who possibly had already had a scotch or two by this point. Or not. I guess we will never know.
Finding kosher food in Vancouver (back to food again)
Okay, so Vancouver is not exactly bursting with kosher food options. But we did make some interesting finds. While on Granville Island, at the open air market (kind of like a super clean and organized shuk) we did find the one kosher item - pickles which are imported form New York. Of the two guys working here, one knew they were kosher and the other guy had no clue what that little symbol on the container meant.
In another little suburb spot, we found kosher ice cream (twice) which was very exciting. So, the main food groups were covered.
Oh, then while walking we saw a shop with a sign in Hebrew in the window, so we approached the owner of the bakery to see if it was kosher. It was not, but he did feel the need to give us a super long lecture on religion, veganism and such. My advice, if you see the Hebrew sign and don't have time for a super long chat, keep on walking!
A great time was had by all and we were so happy that we were able to make the trip. Hopefully before my next nieces bat mitzvah, they will invent technology which will enable me to just arrive and skip the whole 18+ hour flight.
Back to Reality
Well, we got back to Israel and jumped right into preparations for Shavuot. You'd think that with my crazy work schedule, I would not be able to get jet-lagged but that is incorrect. Apparently I just enjoy waking up at 5am, or being up all night, etc... Anyway, Shavuot. Lots of cooking, hubby did the shopping from a list I sent him from Vancouver. We had the annual meal with some of the neighbors which is always really nice. Basically, everyone brings a full meal based on the number of people they bring to the meal and then its all buffet style. And one neighbor BBQs fish, which is a treat for me because half of my family does not eat fish so I basically never cook it. At dinner, I think I tried cauliflower in all of its forms and salad in all of its forms. Fun chatting with neighbors and just relaxing. I worked one shift on Shavuot and then life really got back to the usual.
Almost summer
Well, summer is almost upon us. We had a stretch of weather two weeks ago where it was about 108 degrees Fahrenheit. That was unpleasant Hopefully the summer will just be normal hot and gross and not like that! What will the kids be doing this summer? Funny you should ask because I have no clue. Well, I have somewhat of a clue but it can change without warning.
Kid #1 - looking for a job. But also will be at tzofim camp as a counselor for two weeks or so
Kid #2 - has a week or two of this camp to learn to be a counselor for these school trips. I wish that I had a better translation but I do not. Then she also has a few weeks of both tzofim camp as a counselor in training and a training week to learn to be a counselor for tzofim. So basically she is pretty busy. Then she wants to fit in a week of Hacker camp, but we have to see.
Kid #3 - same tzofim camp schedule as kid #2, but she also has some sort of camp program for this computer course she takes year round called NESS. Then she and a friend are running a little camp in August for a week and a half for kindergarten aged kids. In August there are limited options for kids, so lots of older kids run camps for them.
Kid #4 - also tzofim camp for a week. Also hopefully three weeks of a gymnastics camp, but only if other boys near his age sign up. Because as confident as he may be, he is not planning to attend a gymnastics camp with him and a bunch of 8 year old girls. So hopefully that will work out. His art class is also doing something this summer, so we need to look into that. And his ukulele concert is in July so they have lots of extra practices for that. Yes, he switched from guitar to ukulele, because umm, why not?
Basically I printed out a calendar so the kids can fill in their camps so I can keep track of them.
Oh, also I told my boss that I would work an extra shift each week this summer because I know everyone wants vacation and the summer is really hard with little kids. So it will be interesting. At least I will be making extra money to help support all of these activities.
Moving
Oh and we are moving this summer. Like in 6 weeks. And like, I just began to panic about this last week because I have done nothing except clean out my closet. You might be wondering, but why would you move out of your super awesome neighborhood. Well, fear not! We have no plans to leave the best street in Modi'in. We are moving approximately six houses down. I don't believe we will need a truck, just some strong guys with hand trucks. The new house is smaller but laid out differently and hopefully better. But it means we have to get rid of furniture, buy some new furniture and just purge. So that will be interesting. And someone has to retrain the dog.
Speaking of the dog...
Goldie, the flat dog
So, as you all know, I went somewhat off the rails almost two years ago and decided to get a dog. Again. Because the first try didn't go well. Somehow I forgot that and got one again. And yes, she is adorable and fluffy and also Cuckoo. I always say, I don't know if she is happy that she got such a busy crazy family or if she wishes she were the pampered lap dog of some old lady. She is half poodle... Her favorite thing to do is to make herself totally flat on top of the sofa. Like she has zero bones. If she isn't doing that, she is likely inside of the dishwasher licking the dirty dishes, or opening the recycling up and eating the boxes. It is like having a toddler that never grows up.
And then she just randomly barks at us, or the butterflies, or because she hears people walking on the path behind my house, but they are not petting her and she is mad that no one is rubbing her belly. Dogs are weird. So yeah, like toddlers.
Until the next time....
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