So I think I will start off with this. I am not involved politically and am always way behind on the news. But I do know this. Where I work, we treat all patients and their families the same. It doesn't matter if we can communicate in Hebrew, Arabic, English or something else. (Anyway I speak to the babies in English. And Arabic is next on my list of languages to learn) ) Here is sampling of photos I have taken. I am guessing that you cannot guess who is Jewish, who is Muslim etc...
This is Israel.
Summer happened:
So I think that I did actually write about summer stuff. Basically, summer was exactly the same for the adults and I needed a personal asistant basically, to keep track of the kids whereabouts. There were camping trips, hacker camp, jobs, running a summer camp for a week for little kids, hacker camp again, camping again, art camp, and did I mention camping?
Lots of people were visiting Israel:
So one of the great things about living here is that it seems like most of our friends and family eventually visit Israel for a trip. So we still get to see them. This summer was a lot of fun getting to see some of our close friends who were visiting. Come back soon and if you havent yet come , then come already And we will meet you for a coffee or dinner or whatever. Just dont ask me to meet you to go ziplining because just NO!
We moved:
So while our kids were on one of these camping trips, we moved, Down the street. Because as I mentioned, we are crazy. Like not even really down the street but like five houses away. We love our neighborhood and did not want to go far. After a month we are finally 95% unpacked. Now if only the dog could figure out that the dogs on this side of street don't need her to bark at them every time they bark.
One bonus of the house that we did not even know about? We have an amazing view out to the hills of Jerusalem. I can sit on my front porch type thing and see the hills. Its awesome.
I discovered that I hoard weird stuff:
Moving stinks but packing and unpacking are excellent ways to clean out stuff that you dont need. It is also a way into self discovery as you try and figure out why you own certain things.
Odd things that I found:
*Resume paper, from 2000 when I graduated college. I mean, who sends a paper resume these days and why do I still have this? And why when I posted it online did several people want it?
*Small notebooks. Apparently I have purchased about 20 surplus small school notebooks for the kids since we have moved here. And they no longer even use that size yet I still have them. Why??
*Siddurim (prayer books) Okay so maybe this isn't so much hoarding but the amount that we own is not normal. I think that we can open our own shul in the house and host a minyan for both nusach Ashkenaz and Sepahard. Because in NJ we used Ashkenaz and here we almost always use Sephard so obviously we need to own double.
Along those same lines. I have enough copies of the Tanach to open my own school. Which sort of makes sense because I did used to homeschool but my enrollment capped out at four students.
I attempted shopping with teens:
Actually I don't even want to blog about it. We lived and they aren't naked. End of story.
Boys had a day of adventure:
Since I took the girls with me to Vancouver for my niece's bat mitzvah a few months ago, the boys were supposed to go on an adventure this summer. But due to everyone's busy summer, it didnt happen until the very last week of the summer. But apparently it was worth waiting for! The hubby and the boys drove all the way up North and went to a ropes course, a zipline, ice skating, go karting, and some other stuff. Oh, paintballing. And ate manly foods like pizza and ice cream and other healthy choices!
School started:
I know what you're thinking. I'm too young to have such big kids. It's true! But it's all part of my big plan to be young and wealthy when they all move out. At least the youngish part is working so far.
Activities started:
Scouts
Scouts
Scouts
Scouts
Taekwondo
Taekwondo
Netball
Guitar
Art
Tricking
Hallelujah for public transportation!!
My dog is a jerk:
She spent a week barking in the middle of the night after we moved. I spent a week telling her if she didn't stop I was selling her. At least she is cute and fluffy.
Post office adventures:
It's been a while since I've had a good Israel story so here ya go.
So the post office here is interesting. You can read into that whatever you want but lets just say, I'd stand in line any day in my old NJ post office instead. Here you take a number at the post office. Here you take a number when you enter. But there are different categories for services. So first you hope that you took a number for the correct service. Then you wait. The fact that the post office has many many chairs should be the first clue that you will be waiting for quite some time. Also that they have vending machines. Some have stamps and some have snacks. So basically they are sayng, take a seat and buy a snack because you will be here for some time.
Why am I telling you this? Because I ordered something from England. Most of the order came to the candy shop right near my house, so last week I walked over, and picked it up. But one item apparently wanted to go to the main post office in my town. So I finally decided to go and pick it up. I went in and took a number, There were only like ten poeple there which is a small crowd. But one little detail. After you take a number there is a big screen that shows which number is being helped and who is next and there is also a speaker system that announces it. But the screen was broken. So we are all just sitting around. Then one woman is getting annoyed so she tells them, call out the numbers. Because apparently the screen is broken but the system is still working, they just need to hit the button for next.
So we wait and we wait, because apparently people are like taking out mortgages at the bank and earning university degrees. Then finally, miracle of miracles, my number gets called. But there is already a customer at the widow I am called to, so I stand behind him, Until the postal worker say what do you need? I said, you called me. She is like oh sorry I pushed the button by accident. So back to my chair I go. I few more minutes pass and yes, you guessed it. They called the number after me, because hello, the system. So as the guy who is number 285 walks up, I say, (in Hebrew of course) hold on, I am 284. He says yeah they already called you. So I respond yes but she sad she called me by accident. The postal worker is like, just come over, we will take care of you quickly. So thankfully I wasn't registering for citizenship or anything and just getting a package so I was actually done in about 90 seconds. For me to walk over and intercept a guy taking his turn (which was actually my turn) means one of a few things.
I am starting to assimilate a bit
I was really hungry and wanted to be done
I was so excited to go to back to school night and didn't want to be late
I am not a frier (sucker)
I really wanted the package
Suddenly back to school night isn't so scary:
This past week was my first back to school night of this season. Each year since we've been here (can you believe we are starting our fourth school year) I have attended these events and stressed about them. One thing about having twins is that your sidekick is never there for you. As in, the parents have to split up. And our boys are also in the same school as one another so we have to split up always.
You might remember blogs of years past where I was so stressed just about going around the room and saying our names and our child's name. Last night I had none of that anxiety. I wasnt even worried that I wouldnt understand things at the back to school night. This is a huge shift for me. I guess a year and a half of working here has made me realize that I do understand Hebrew and even if I dont catch 100% I will get enough to be able to know what to do and what I need to ask for someone to repeat. The biggest issue was that the air conditioner was so loud in the classroom that it was hard to hear the questions that the other parents asked.
But big news. This year, no one asked about the lockers or the microwaves. I guess in 10th grade we start to be concerned with class size (47 kids in my kids biology class as of this blog) and volunteer hours etc...
And finally, one little work tidbit:
During the year we all attend many many days of continuing education. I used to totally stress over these but now I just stress about the parking. Last week I attended a class on the testing we do ojnall babies after birth.
Yesterday I attended a class about feeding premature babies which was actually way more interesting than it sounds.
So first victory, I understood about 99% of the lectures. It helps that most of the speakers are people that I work with so I already know how they speak. Also I was sitting on the front row and stating right at them. Sorry if they think I'm too intense with the eye contact but I have to stare at you if I want to understand you. I even managed to ask a question in front of everyone. Probably because it was to a doctor that I work with and she always send to understand me so I was less scared.
So then we have a presentation about a new piece of equipment that we did a trial with and might start using again. The details aren't important to this blog. What is important??
This slide
Yes they call this piece a Christmas Tree. And yes it was weird to hear that during a Hebrew presentation. And yes they apparently call this a Christmas Tree in America as well. But I'm guessing when it was presented to them, no one said Christmas Tree with a nice thick Israeli accent and a nice rolling letter R.
I snapped this pic to send to fellow nurses in the USA and they got a little giggle out of it.
And that is my current update of odd things that happen here.
