Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Chanukah etc. Dec 31st

Where were we?  Ah yes, right before Chanukah.  So the kids have very few days off and we grumble about missing Sundays and three day weekends.  When are we supposed to do anything as a family?  Visit friends who live in a different city or go to a science museum or a hike?  The options are limited.  Apparently the idea has been floated in the Knesset to have one Friday or one Sunday off per month for exactly this reason but so far, no luck.  Maybe in April with the new government (that seems to be the new answer to all our social ills...)

Here's how we spent our vacation (the kids had off Friday through Tuesday of Chanukah)

Friday:  Sleep in and get ready for Shabbos.

Sunday:  Leave much later than planned but have a lovely time at the "Gan HaMada" (Garden of Science) at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.  I was excited to drive through the campus and imagine one or more of our kids studying there one day.  And it felt a lot like outings we used to take when we lived in California which may have been the most significant aspect of the whole trip...


Panpipes


They had a special exhibit on the brain, complete with an inflatable model 


Crank the handle and watch the liquid hug the sides as it spins



Moon bounce  -- pull gently on the handle and the pulleys pull you back up


But only age 10 and up, so Aharon Akiva made a personal version for Hillel... 
























This exhibit demonstrated how the ocean waves can be harnessed to generate power for home use




Monday:  Get Sushi in Yerushalayim before heading to Galita in Kibbutz Tzova.  The kids keep calling it the "Chocolate Factory" but technically that's not true since they don't make the chocolate there, just run workshops and a gift shop and show a short film on chocolate making.  The workshops are really creative and fun, and the chocolate is delicious!  The younger girls were so excited about their creations which were admittedly very cool.  Shoshana built a house out of chocolate, Hodayah made a car and the older two made truffles.  Hillel was tired and cranky and would have been a disaster in the chocolate workshop room, so he and I took a walk into the Kibbutz and looked around which was interesting for me because it seemed like an old school kibbutz complete with a "beit tinokot" (baby house, though I believe these days kids live with their families and not in a children's house).




In process... 



Shoshana's finished product.  Note the missing bite in the corner of the yard and the other items visible on her desk where she set up the house for the photo shoot before she began eating it :)




Tuesday:  Together with the Gotliebs (Judah's sister & family) we hiked near the Dead Sea, a hike that Judah had done with the Yeshiva boys a few weeks ago.  He was so impressed he thought to  take us back there.  It was really beautiful, and the drive there helped solidify my thinking that Aharon Akiva will not attend the High School in Kiryat Arba or Susia.  The schools are supposed to be great schools but the drive goes through some areas that get a bit more excitement than I want for his regular commute.  They're also dorm schools which we're not excited about and he's not that interested so that's that.











The whole area used to be under water and occasionally you can see shells along the trail


Judah and his sister, Shimona 





Good segue into one of the themes of the week which is the high school application process for Aharon Akiva.  There are SO many choices.  And I keep getting emails about open house nights and shadow visit days and I sometimes read them and put them on the calendar but they're all in Hebrew so even though I can read them, it's an effort and if I am in the middle of something I save them for later and then sometimes forget to get back to them and miss dates.  So tonight is the open house for Mekor Chaim and tomorrow is open house at Horev then we have a break.  Have I mentioned that there are so many choices?  An eighth grader needs to decide if he wants to be in a boarding school (very common here, even if they're close by) and the schedules can get very intense with classes from morning until night.  There are schools with agricultural tracks, music specialties, emphasis on the spiritual, the academic, etc.  Now I am already back from the Mekor Chaim information night.  I will report on all the impressions and process when he decides where he's going!

Shabbos Chanukah with my family was lovely and Sam Daffner was with us which was a real treat!    I keep remembering that in the US it's break time because here it's business as usual.   The electrician came last week and removed the decorative hanging wires which was welcome progress and I successfully got work permits at the police station yesterday.  The workers all have to have background checks before being allowed into the community and get temporary permits for a maximum of two to three months, (depending on the type of work being done).  Lots of hopeful workers milling about outside the building.  It's an experience going there and I once again wished I had a magic wand, this time to provide shaded benches and a refreshment stand and maybe even a friendly respectful worker outside updating people on how long everything would take and assisting with paperwork.  The contractor said that the tile guy was sick but he thinks that really tomorrow he'll come and replace our missing floor tiles, which would also be welcome.  Hillel enjoys taking fistfuls of gravelly sand and throwing them into the kitchen, so floor tiles wouold solve that problem :)

I think I mentioned my reaching out to the rabbi in Alon Shvut who is working on coexistence projects?  Well, he emailed me to let me know about an event yesterday afternoon to see if I would be able to attend.  It turns out that Tiferet was home and Hillel was in a fine mood so I said I would be back in about an hour and left.  I had never been to this location before and was following directions from what I remembered the rabbi had described when we first met a couple of months ago.  It involved driving parallel to the main (two-lane) highway on a bumpy dirt road past an old low building that looked like it may have been a barn and then an old stone house with a "private residence" sign hanging on it.  I called him and left a message that I couldn't find them and was going home but he called me back right away and came out to direct me  Turns out I was right there but without knowing the area, I was not sure it was a smart place for me to be wandering around.

The first speaker had already started speaking to the group of American college students who were seated in a circle around a wood burning stove in the one room log cabin that Shorashim uses as its meeting place.  I sat down and when I looked up I saw that the woman sitting on the other side of the speaker was a former student of mine from JCHS!  We were both so surprised.  I was glad to hear the speakers, first the two rabbis and then the Palestinian man (who has a very interesting story and is writing a book) and get a sense of their sequence and presentation routine.  After they were done, Adi and I got to catch up for a few minutes before her group left and I headed home to make dinner.

I think I should write shorter and more frequent posts... Sorry!    I keep changing the title as the days pass and I add more bits.  Happy Solar New Year to everyone who is noting it.  It's a completely invisible occurrence in this community and except for my Romanian cleaning lady who celebrates Christmas and New Year's, you wouldn't even know it's a special day anywhere!   

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

December 16th

Chanukah :)  It's the first time in a long time when it doesn't feel like a national afterthought in Christmas' shadow.  Not that I ever cared so much about that aspect, but I am surprised at how much I am enjoying the feeling of being in a country where the holidays are my holidays.  Funny moment:  Our yishuv has set up some decorations for Chanukah, a chanukiah at the traffic circle near the entrance, very nice.  Then I was driving up the hill and saw a series of what looked to me like down-pointing arrows and I couldn't understand what their point was.  I know that they have been doing lots of beautification work on the entrance area and then I realized.  They're dreidels!  I'll try and get a picture of them for next time, but here is a picture from a neighbor of our chanukiah.


Aharon Akiva and Tiferet have now both had their first babysitting jobs, and I imagine they will have as much work as they want.  People post on the local Yahoo group all the time looking for sitters.  

Shoshana commented that "there are more chances for doing mitzvot here than in Oakland" after we gave a boy a ride up the hill from the highway and into the yishuv near where he lived.  Now, it's debatable whether Jewish leadership has more impact in Israel or in the diaspora but it was an interesting perspective coming from her -- she sees me and others giving rides to people all the time (which, by the way, is completely normal here, so many people don't have cars and the busses run too infrequently to be relied upon).  Many small moments.  

Today she came home from school and said that it was as good as a normal day at OHDS, which is as good a report as we have had all year!  That was something.  Both she and Hodayah came home with cardboard dreidels with the letter "pei" instead of a "shin" and a note from their ulpan teacher that this is their first Chanukah in Israel and they finally get a "pei" (which stands for "here" instead of the "shin"outside of Israel which stands for "there").  

Judah picked up a variety of donuts at the central bus station this afternoon and Shoshana came to the local bakery to peruse their selection.  You can't get donuts all year, just around Chanukah, but now they have many choices!  Chocolate glazed, caramel filled, sprinkles, custard, just like in America!  When I lived here as a child there was one kind.  Jelly.  Hope you like it.  They keep a little container of powdered sugar and a sifter near the donuts so you can give them a fresh dusting before packing them up.  I thought that was cute.  

Yesterday the host of the morning Tanach shiur (with Tamar Farkas) organized a field trip to Shiloh.  Judah has been there before with the shul and was there with Aharon Akiva the next year but I had never been.  People find it meaningful because it was the first place the Mishkan stood, for 369 years or something like that, but many people especially go because it was where Chana prayed for a child before having Shmuel.  So that was meaningful.  And the tour guide made an off-hand comment that she had grown up there when she was young, so I asked her if she knew my friend's family (I had a friend 5th-8th grade who had moved to Jerusalem where I knew her but I remember her telling me that she had lived in Shiloh before and how beautiful it was and how she would play in the open fields nearby).  She was friends with her older sister and knows the family, so she took my number and said she would pass it along.  


In the background is the area the archeologists believe is likely to have been the spot of the Mishkan.  It was cool to hear our guide explain what the clues are -- hewn stones creating a rectangular clearing of the right size, location on the hill, etc.  She also said she really hopes they find compelling evidence of this as the location because they already built the visitor's center movie theater with the windows/ screen facing this clearing with a short film on the area's history and it would be too bad if it was the wrong spot... As an aside, I know two kids who want to be archaeologists when they grow up.  Not as common an answer in Oakland to "what do you want to be when you grow up" :)


A model of the altar.  Hillel thought it made for a great slide and went up and down several times before I had to pick him up because the group was moving on.  The building in the background is a relatively recent structure from the time of Turkish rule built on Byzantine era mosaic floors.  Very cool.  

Tamar ensuring Hillel's safety :)

I am continuing to figure out food (cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, dairy (except cream cheese), pitot, and chummus are better here.  I can't find fresh baby carrots, snap peas, snow peas, fresh corn tortillas, or affordable almond milk or almond butter.  I did finally find where they sell bean sprouts and oat bran in my supermarket.  Well, they don't have the oat bran anymore but the natural food store next door has lots, so that's my new address for oat bran.  Which is important for Oat Bran Muffins which are sometimes useful for Hillel to have...

The kids have school tomorrow and Thursday but are then off Friday through Tuesday so one of my jobs tomorrow is to try and map out a schedule for us, whether it's day trips or an overnight somewhere.  Of course, that's what the entire country is doing and several of my Facebook groups are buzzing with questions and suggestions about what to do so I am not at a loss for options...  My family (mom & her husband, sister and her son, brother and his wife and three kids) is coming for Shabbat and we are all looking forward to that.  They were last here right before Tiferet's Bat Mitzvah, so almost two months!

Someone asked for pictures that show how the houses are built with a top level and a bottom level but staggered so people have yards and light.  This is the back of our street, looking up and down from the park in the middle:


I don't know if this helps, but maybe we can talk it through on the phone while you're looking at the pictures :)  

OK, I should sleep.  Chag sameach!


Friday, December 5, 2014

December 5

I don't know that I can keep up with snazzy titles for each post.  Too much pressure, and the point of this is to stay in touch with people in the US, not to write my Magnum Opus!  So unless there's actually an obvious theme, I will just stick with the date.

Judah has left for his trip to the US, recruiting for the Yeshiva in LA, SF Bay Area, Atlanta, Kansas City, NY & NJ.  He will have his first Shabbos in Oakland which promises to be a lovely experience and then be with his mom in NJ before flying home.  We'll have dinner with Shimona (my SIL) and Erez & family and I have the older three kids out for lunch at friends and I will either be at home or at a neighbor's house, depending on Hodayah's preference :)  We miss him, but it's fine, and the kids are looking forward to his bringing back all the things we have been ordering online and having delivered to my MIL's house in NJ...

OK, I promised pictures of the living room with the bookcases:


The remaining steps before it's "done" are finish unpacking boxes, install light fixtures, crown molding, finish painting and put up curtains and pictures.  Not much :)  

OK, taste-of-local-living moment.  In our local Rami Levy (not the one where there was the attack on Wednesday, though we had amazing security on Thursday!) you can of course find a selection of Chanukiyot, since it's Kislev :)  


And, for the gluten free, borekas and malawach without gluten (they actually have a whole gluten free section in the baking aisle)



And I still get a kick out of finding that the very strange and difficult word in Hebrew is actually English...


There is a shul in the "Merchav Mugan" (literally "Protected Clearing," aka bomb shelter) in the back of the store and a daily mincha minyan at 3:00 pm



Here is Hodayah's library at school 



And her reading corner which she points out she likes because it's right next to the English section


And cool bottle cap art on the walls of her school depicting shivat haminim (the seven species)




I attended a meeting last Thursday that was the first of a series that will go through March.  It was an interesting experience and I am considering that before I do much here I need to get educated about the lay of the land (no pun intended) and where everyone is holding.  Slowly, slowly!  It was a small group comprised of Jews, Muslims and Christians from around and I figure that if nothing else, I will learn more about the relevant perspectives.  I do feel more and more often like I am itching to get back to work but when I think about it rationally, I don't think that it's a smart time to commit to a regular job.  It is, however, a fine time for reconnaissance and meeting people, so there we have it.  Hillel spent the day with my sister in Katamon (in J-m) and he did great!  She runs a small daycare and apparently he went to sleep at nap time with no trouble and had a fun day.  Maybe he is ready for school :)  

This morning I went to a lecture at Givat Oz VeGaon, a nature preserve near the main intersection down the highway given by Miriam Adahan who, in addition to being an accomplished author, therapist and speaker is also an old friend of my mother's from Berkeley and I wanted to say hello.  Remarkably, Hillel was great and played around and was very sweet and I just stood at the back, right outside the tent and she was using a microphone so I could hear just fine.  She spoke in Hebrew and someone was offering a simultaneous translation in English for people who needed it and they had headsets.  It was a good setup and it was interesting for me to see how someone here does a presentation on positive parenting;I noted how much overlap there was between what she said and what I have heard from Hedy and elsewhere, so it was all very familiar (good thing if I want to do something similar in some context!).   Anyway, at the end she mentioned that she was working to get her system (re. helping kids learn to exercise control when they become upset and feel better about themselves) incorporated into the school system and she gave me her card and we will be in touch.  

I am impressed by the movie selection at the local Matnas (like a JCC).  Last time they screened "Bethlehem" and this week they are showing "Honor Diaries."  These are serious films that deal with difficult and sensitive topics.  Sometimes I feel disappointed when I hear people in my social circles talk politics, so it's especially nice to feel that the movies are avoiding complacency and encouraging thought and awareness of different perspectives.  

Kids continue to feel mostly better.  Now someone says that "Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays are okay days" but it's a lot of two steps forward one step back (or some variation on that theme).  When I hear the American kids who have been here longer speaking so fluently I look forward to when our kids will be able to do that.  I believe they will, despite their environment which has many Anglos in it, and it's just a question of time.  

The process for getting Aharon Akiva into High School has officially begun with an information night which I did not attend, though I did appoint a friend to download what I missed.  She brought back a handout which is essentially a series of deadlines and procedures and I have yet to look at it carefully or get the report on the meeting.  She did say it was nothing groundbreaking.  One of the big questions on that front is dorm school vs daily commute.  Even the dorm schools they come home Tuesdays and on Thursday for Shabbat, and sometimes more.  I don't love the idea but mainly want him to be in a school that's a good fit for him.  

Construction has not been making progress :(  Mustafa, our contractor, came by yesterday afternoon and brought color swatches for the cabinets, which, of course, are not made anymore because that company went out of business.  We'll find something pretty close and it will be fine, but he said he would send the carpenter by again.  Well, he came by this morning while I was at the parenting lecture.  I know that there's a culture of casual, but I would have voted for some communication before showing up and hoping that I'm home, especially since they prefer not to communicate by email so I can't send sketches or photos etc.  Oh well, all fine.  I am not really in a hurry, but Judah wants to be able to host his students for Shabbos and I would like to have the cabinets and countertops in by then.  I figure if I set my standards really low for house construction and repair progress, then I won't be disappointed!  I am not prepared to be more intense about keeping everything moving (even though my neighbor asked me, "Are you being tough enough?  You gotta stay on top of them!") and honestly, sometimes I adjust my ideas of what I want as I spend the weeks living here and letting the ideas percolate.  So it's all good.  

Oh, I was able to get the video of Hillel puddle running off my phone and to the computer: 



My high school principal has been visiting Israel and the school asked me if I would help set up his schedule for visiting the various gap year programs while he is here and set up dinners with alumni.  So I have been a bit busy with that and it was fun that there are so many connections, even just setting up the meetings.  One secretary says are you married?  To whom?  Judah Dardik.  Oh, send him and Shimona my regards (they were in camp together).  The contact person for Mechon Maayan is my neighbor up the street, the one for Midreshet Moriah lives on the top of the Yishuv and are friends of ours.   The director of Torat Chessed is the son of our Mesader Kiddushin who is also Judah's family's rabbi in NJ since forever.  The person he will meet with at Midreshet HaRova also lives in Neve Daniel etc.  Small world and then some!

Bnei Akiva just finished their "Chodesh Irgun" which I admit I don't totally understand, but the kids spend extra time at the "snif" (local branch of the youth movement) and prepare dance presentations with lots of synchronized flag action, repaint their walls, and there's a changing of the guard with the counselors and leadership.  Shoshana will be able to start in a few weeks.  I was in Ezra when we lived here and we never had anything like this.  The kids are even allowed to miss school the next day and the busses all come on time and then again 3 hours later.  Aharon Akiva participated more than Tiferet and I am kind of glad to be back with the routine.  

OK, moving on with my Friday.  Feel free to ask anything I am not covering here :)

Shabbat Shalom everyone!