Hillel makes a cameo appearance...
I just liked that the matchboxes at the supermarket say "Shabbat Shalom" because what else would you be using matches for than to light your Shabbat candles?
As you can see, it's much more open now (there used to be walls enclosing the whole kitchen with a pass through between the kitchen and dining room and a door around where the trash cans) which I love and realize that I need to figure out how to keep it clean and welcoming since it is one of the first sights that greets someone upon entry.
Since these were taken we unpacked some more in the dining room and one of the kids commented that it's starting to look like a real house!
This is the first time in thirteen years that I have not hosted seder and I am really okay with that. Looking forward to hosting at our house next year (hope you can come!) but this was good for now. Being at the hotel and traveling with a group has been fun for the kids and me and today we are having a relaxed day at home which is just perfect. Judah and Aharon Akiva went in to Jerusalem to join the group today and the kids are slowly waking up and coming downstairs to eat matza and cream cheese and plan their days.
Small country anecdotes of the week: As we were finishing breakfast at the hotel on Monday morning, my brother and his family walk in! I had no idea they were even going to be in Haifa let alone at the same hotel at the same time. They live in Modiin so we see them every now and again but not super often. We got a bit of morning time at the pool with them before we needed to check out, so that was a fun treat for the kids. In underground city of old Acco, we ran into our neighbors from across the street who have kids in Aharon Akiva and Tiferet's grades. Then, we saw Dawn Margolin as we were outside Yitz's apartment in Baka and got to chat a bit. Her son Avi and wife Yael live in Sdeh Boaz, an outpost (suburb?) of Neve Daniel and she is in Israel for Pesach.
Purim: Man, the whole week of Purim is taken up with related activities. The kids effectively only had two days of school, Sunday and Monday, because Tuesday was their costume-carnival-early dismissal day, Wednesday was Taanit Esther and there was no school (apparently because of a clerical error at the Ministry of education but what's done is done...), Thursday was Purim and Friday was Shushan Purim so that was that. Fun, and exhausting. They had a parade with a donkey (easier to fins than horses) and floats right here in Neve Daniel, it seemed like the whole town was dressed up and all morning people were delivering mishloach Manot, lots of megillah readings so you can pick your favorite style and location. Sephardi readings, fast readings, women's readings, kid friendly readings, no grogger readings, early, late, etc. Very convenient. Seudah at Shimona and Erez's house was perfect. The Rozens came from Beit Shemesh and we had another family from down the street. Pot luck, so not too much for any one family, and lots of fun. I am pretty sure someone did a dramatic rendition of "Let it Go" from Frozen but I won't say who ;)
Here are pictures from the bus stop Tuesday morning:
Hodayah has a very cute ladybug dress which is mostly obscured by her coat. Oh well.
Elections: Serious, very serious. I was interested by some of the campaign approaches and differences between how campaigns are managed here vs. the US. For example, televised debates and publicized platforms are a major feature of US elections which makes a great deal of sense to me. Here, not so much. I learned the word for "political platform" (it sounds like how you would say "political mattress," but I figured it out...) and many small parties have a relatively narrow focus, kind of like the Green Party in the US might have (at least in popular perception). The big parties have official ideas about more than national security and how to address the Israeli-Palestinian problem, but they are not much of a focus because people's focus is on security questions. The radio ads also feature musical jingles instead of deep voiced, ominous warnings and promises. Netanyahu's main campaign slogan was "It's us or the Right" except in our neighborhood he had a variation, "It's us or them," presumably letting you use your imagination to fill in that blank. I can't see that happening in the US; people are more sensitive to demonizing the other and would get turned off. But here people are really scared, so it worked. Much like I have felt in the US in some elections, it felt that there was no really good choice. I was having anxiety dreams before the election and felt like I needed to choose between evil and existentially irresponsible. Now, of course that's not true, even the politicians here for whom I don't care much aren't actually evil, and I may disagree with an approach but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's irresponsible, but it was really stressful for me. I am glad it's over and that it wasn't a close call. The town published election results for our community and we had a great turnout rate, in the mid eighties and it was interesting to see the breakdown. Mostly predictable, but not entirely and that was encouraging.
Random family news: Judah is bringing Shoshana and Tiferet with him to Oakland when he comes in June for the BJC Man's Cup and they are both very excited to get to see their friends (Shoshana wants to surprise some of her friends, so don't mention it yet), visit OHDS and other favorite spots and eat some of the foods that we don't have here.
Aharon Akiva broke his arm on a school trip and had to miss the second two days, but he has been a very good sport about it. Luckily, the head of Orthopedics at Shaarei Tzedek lives in Efrat and has office hours on Monday afternoons (he broke it on Sunday and was returned home Sunday night) and has been taking very good care of him. Plus, he happens to have a son in Aharon Akiva's grade who was on the same trip and told Aharon Akiva that rumor has it that Sunday was the best day, so he doesn't have to feel too bad.
The Safrans stayed with us for a few days before Pesach and it was such a treat to see them! Their girls shadowed ours at school on Thursday, then Friday was Eliel's Bat Mitzvah where we saw more Oakland friends and spent an absolutely lovely Shabbat with them. Friday night we went to Shimona and Erez's and after dinner the neighbors from across the street came over to hang out (I had mentioned it to then because I thought they would really hit it off) and then the Farkas' came for lunch. Sunday we went with them to Einot Tzukim and Nachal David and the kids enjoyed playing in the waterfalls and seeing the dozens of hyraxes that live in the area including some moms with litters which were especially fun to see.
Man made pools fed by a natural spring and river at Einot Tzukim near the Dead Sea.
Ice cream, because it was very hot.
Hillel loved picking up pebbles from the water and tossing them. kept him occupied for a good while!
The brave stood under the waterfall
Scenery. Photo credit: Tiferet
Play "spot the hyrax"
Tomorrow morning we head back to Yerushalayim for Old City tours (Kotel Tunnels and Ir David) and we'll be sleeping at my mother's apartment which is about a five minute walk from Yitz's apartment. Some meals with the group, some with my mom and Hannah and Netzach -- very nice to see everyone. As an aside bit of trivia, we have had a total of five Naomis as part of this trip! Here are two of us:
Naomi Kaye Honova and me in Old Acco. Photo credit: probably Honza :)
Chag sameach!
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