Blogging, Israel Style

So we took the car to the mechanic to have our oil changed, and although the owner of the garage told us that we could go and have lunch and come back, and that we'd be next on the lift, we figured it would be smarter to stay and wait ourselves. Smart move.

In any case, what do you do while you're waiting for your oil change? In the States I'd be at Jiffy Lube and would wait in the nice little waiting room with that day's newspaper and fresh coffee. Not here.

Here, we're waiting in the office. But when the owner's wife left, she told us to sit at her desk. Can I check my email? Sure. I didn't bother to ask her whether I could blog - but why not? We're all family.

Celebrating One Year in Israel

This past Shabbat, we celebrated our one-year anniversary of our aliyah. I made a siyyum on seder Nashim of Mishnah, and we invited some friends from the yishuv to join us after seudah shlishit. We really didn't feel like making a whole meal, and a dessert seemed doable. It was a wonderful, low-key event. Also, we were fortunate that our good friends the Sobols of Modiin joined us for Shabbat. We sat around, sang a couple of songs. I spoke about how grateful we felt that we had merited to spend a year living in the Holy Land, noting the great difference between Jewish life in the Diaspora and in America. (I likened Jewish life in America to being born underwater with an air-tank, and never realizing that there was something called "dry land.") Then Rav Sobol said some nice things about us, and that was it.
It's hard to believe that a year has gone by. It seems to have passed so quickly. And I continue to be thankful that we have had such a smooth and successful year, and pray that we continue to grow and acclimate in our new home and lives.
This week, Rena and I attended the Tzohar International Rabbinic Conference in Yerushalayim, which gather rabbis from Israel, the United States, and a couple of other countries. I guess I'm still an Oleh, because I got a rush from the fact that my name tag for the conference said my name, and under it: ישראל. I'm from here now. I'm not one of the rabbis looking at the Olim wishing that my tag said "Israel". I did that already. Thank God, now I'm on the other side, and giving thanks for that fact each and every day.

"Ding Dong, the Fish is Dead" and "פינת הקוביות" (the blocks corner)

Poor, poor Petachya. He came downstairs this morning to find an empty vase. "What happened to Dorothy?" he asked, with fear in his eyes. Abba cleared up the mystery, saying that he found her floating dead on the top of the vase when he came down this morning and had to flush her down the toilet. Bye, bye Dorothy.

In other news, Petachya informed me today that he only takes off his shoes in school in the פינת הקוביות, the blocks corner. Why there? "Because we build the Beit Hamikdash, and you don't wear shoes in the Beit Hamikdash!"

Need I say more?

What's going on

Yesterday was pretty exciting. Petachya's been learning about fish this week in camp, and yesterday he brought home - you guessed it! - a live fish! For some reason, the kids in the other groups got magnet fish. Petachya says his is real because it was the assistant's birthday (connection?). I tried to trade with parents of some of the other groups, but it didn't work. So, we now have a new member of the family sitting in a Gladware container on our counter. Her name is Dorothy, like Elmo's fish.

Anyway, Bezalel and Leah are really enjoying camp. Last night was especially fun. They went to an amusement park at night! They left here at 5 and came home at 11. I was impressed because it was exactly when they said they would come home. At about 10:30, I called Leah's counselor to see if they were running on time, and heard many screaming and chattering girls in the background. Wow - I'm glad those days are behind me. They had a great time :)

My Amazing Children

I don't often say this to other people, but today I must: My children are amazing. Yesterday was the last day of school. It is incredible to me that they have gone through and entire year, where every day they woke up and put themselves into an entirely Hebrew environment. Though they occasionally came home and said, "I'm not going to school tomorrow", they almost always (except once, which is a pretty good track record, I think) got up the next morning and went. No kicking and screaming; no crying, moaning, etc. Happy, smiley faces ready to face the day. All of them. Truly amazing. Even Bezalel with his hearing impairment. Wow! Okay, Petachya cried when I dropped him off at gan for the first 4 months, but that's totally age appropriate - he might have done that in the US also. I, on the other hand, put off doing many mundane tasks (Dentist appointments, driver's license transfer, etc.) that involved interacting in Hebrew. Not that my Hebrew isn't good - it is. It's just hard to explain, I guess, why normally routine tasks seem overwhelming.

Anyway, that's why I think my kids are amazing.