(no subject)
Been here nearly two weeks, so it's probably time to start writing about what we've been doing. All in all, our days haven't been terribly exciting, but we *have* been finding our feet and getting settled, so that's something.
I wrote about riding the tram our first full day here, which was a Thursday. The next morning - still cool and rainy - we took my aunt's care and drove up north to visit N and her family. N is someone I met when I was 21 and a student. She's a few years younger than me and we've always been more like sisters than friends. I haven't seen her since our last visit here in 2009, but seeing her always feels like coming home. I sort of put up with her husband (I'm actually the one who introduced them), but her boys are very sweet and aged 3 and 5.
Within 15 minutes of arriving, I was already at the stove cooking soup. There was a ton of food on the table Friday night, including an amazing fennel salad (note to self: ask N for the recipe). A friend of theirs was invited for dinner as well. They're still living in the same house as last time, but they've since changed the rooms around so that the five of us ended up sleeping upstairs in the room her oldest occupied when he was a baby. The room is huge, remeniscent of one of those "family rooms" some hotels offer: D and I shared a king-sized futon, B and M were on a full-sized mattress, J slept in a travel cot and there was still ample walking space.
N, D and I took all five kids for a walk the next morning (N's husband wasn't feeling well and spent most of the weekend in bed) as it had warmed up and had gotten quite sunny. D and I ended up arguing about something just before lunch (things were tense for a few days after that) and he had a nap with J while I hung out with N. We also managed some time alone after the kids were in bed Saturday night. D and I had planned for an early start Sunday morning as I didn't feel right about hanging on to my aunt's car for too long. D decided that instead of heading back to Jerusalem the way we came up, we should drive across to the Golan and down the other side of the Kinneret. Great, but that added over an hour to the trip. For some silly reason (because this usually doesn't happen) J fell asleep and remained asleep till we stopped for coffee just south of the Kinneret. We got snacks for the kids and continued south through the West Bank (along the border with Jordan) which turned into a whole history/geography lesson for B and M. Back to my aunt's where we had lunch and put J to bed for a nap. D went off into town to organize a phone for himself and B and M amused themselves with some games they found in the room they shared.
Monday was another warm day. My aunt suggested getting up early and taking B and M to their school despite the fact that we hadn't yet moved to the flat (driving in traffic versus a two minute walk after the move). This is an ulpan (language school) for children who don't speak Hebrew in order to help them catch up so they can go into a regular state school the following year. Most of the kids are immigrants, but they're obligated to take all children and the cost is the same no matter how long they attend. We took them and completed the registration process and were told that they would begin the next day. I was given a list of items they would need (notebooks, pencils, etc), which I took them to buy upon our return home. Was rather funny, as the shop owner went down the list to make sure she had given me everything only to say something like "I can't supply the sandwich; you'll have to make that yourself" :-P
D had gone to the university to start working that morning, so after J's nap I took the kids to play on the mifletzet (monster). This is a set of slides in a small park near to where my aunt lives. I don't think I've been since the age of 7, so was kind of nostalgic.
D was out that evening, as were my aunt and uncle (the older of their sons was graduating with an accounting degree that night), but another cousin's son stopped by to see me and the kids. Then my aunt and uncle returned, along with the graduating son and his wife and baby (someone was watching their two daughters at home, about an hour or so away).
My aunt and I took the boys to school the next morning (Tuesday). They weren't very nervous, and came home and told us about the other kids (many of them English speaking) and what they had learned (mostly handwriting). This business of having to drive them and pick them up was a pain, but it was only for a few more days and my aunt was happy to help, which was nice. My aunt offered to pick the kids up on her way home from wherever she was spending the morning, but another cousin (I should probably explain that my aunt had seven kids - well, there are six living), the mother of the one who stopped by the previous evening, came by to hang out for a bit and get some recipes from me as she is on a special diet and is really limited in what she can have. After J's nap we drove down to Efrat to visit another cousin, her husband and their five kids (the youngest is just weeks old). D didn't make it as he was still at work. My three had a lovely time playing with the other kids. And then another cousin came to hang out and catch up - was immensely fun. D and I finally had time to talk (make up properly) after she left :-)
The next day my aunt and I drove the kids to school, but I decided to stay in town and do some errands and make my way back to her house on the tram. I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what I did - so it probably wasn't terribly exciting - but it was pretty nice to finally walk around town and revisit a few places. Kind of sad to see with my own eyes that the bookstore I used to work really is shut (I've known about it for a while, but it's not the same to just read it on Facebook). I also priced cafetiers as we were really starting to miss drinking real coffee. J and I eventually made our way home, where my aunt was taking care of the baby of - yes! - another cousin. She's only just gone back to work after having her third child and she only works a few hours a week so the grandmothers are helping out until she goes back full time. The mother of that baby (along with her younger sister,who had been over the previous evening) arrived while my aunt was out collecting the boys from school and I was home with J and the baby. J was in bed by the time my aunt returned and I got lunch for B and M and generally hung out with my cousins till they had to leave. Also did some laundry and started packing up as we were moving into the flat the next morning (Thursday).
D took my aunt's car the following morning - drove the kids to school and got the keys to the flat. Then he came back and we loaded up and drove over. We managed to get all of it in one load. He returned the car and I started unpacking clothes and getting reacquainted with the place (we stayed in the flat for a week in 2009). J and I headed out to the market to get some food and run a few errands and D was here when we returned but left for work soon after. Very nice to finally have a place of our own again. My aunt is lovely and positively doted on us but it's nice to be able to eat what we want and do our own thing after a week of living with someone else.
The flat has two bedrooms (one medium, one huge), a living room, a kitchen and an adjacent tiny dining area. The toilet is separate from the shower room, which is very large but has no washing machine (still working on that). We were going to sleep in the smaller of the two bedrooms and put all three kids in the huge one, but changed our minds and decided to have J in the room with us. One of the chairs in our room unfolds into a bed of sorts - like a long mattress but with the back and sides of the chair around the top third - and J's been sleeping on that. No nap for J that day as getting out of the room was all too easy. Kids were very excited about being back in the flat and explored all over. More food shopping after the notnapping as I could have B and M help carry stuff in their backpacks, and finally a dinner along the lines of what we eat at home.
Friday D was home with us. We went back out to the market to get more food. Fruit, vegetables, olive oil, cheese - we didn't really get that much as it was mostly gone in days. Very tricky to buy food for an empty kitchen! Still, we had the makings for a few nice meals and I was pretty satisfied. Managed to get some fish for D and J for that night. Also bought some amazing halva (and I don't even like halva!) which was gone by Saturday night. Just to give y'all an idea of the array of flavors available....
Back home and then I went over to visit a friend at lunchtime. Spent the afternoon with her and her three daughters. A bit tricky, since she wanted full updates and her girls were bouncing all around us. She was going to spend the late afternoon/evening with a mutual friend, so she drove me home and hung out for a while. Her kids were all over my kids and we got to hang out some more - was fun. Dinner was late-ish due to J's very late nap. After that we put the older two in front of a dvd and took J for a walk.
Saturday morning we took all three to a nearby park. Huge playground, lots of sun. At one point I followed as J walked miles. When we finally returned to the playground, D said we'd been gone for ages. Home for lunch and J's nap, then a former housemate came over and spent the afternoon. I haven't seen him in 5 or 6 years, so was good to catch up. He stayed until it got dark and then J and I walked him back home. Another friend - someone I met when I was 20 - who lives in Tel Aviv was in town for the weekend. She and I went out for dinner and got all caught up. I didn't see her last time I was here either, so it had really also been 5 or 6 years for us.
Sunday morning D went to work. I left the big two at home and took J down to the market, then collected the big two and went to the park. Kids had a great time till J tripped and scraped his face on a path :-( Sunday was also my aunt's birthday and she was going to drop off some laundry after her French class. I had gotten her a big bunch of flowers and when she called from downstairs for me to send the kids down to get the laundry, they surprised her with the flowers. She was very touched and I was glad, because we'd wanted to get her something to thank her for helping us the first week and doing all of our laundry too. After J's nap we walked to the nearest public library - still quite a walk - only to find out that without an Israeli check to leave as a deposit, we can't take out any books. Found eggs in M's head that evening (probably got lice at N's) and ended up running out to get potion for me and the big two (I was starting to feel itchy by then). Not so fun, but all treated.
Monday the kids had school and J and I spent the morning with a close friend of mine from university. She's starting a new job next week so has this week off and she also has a new puppy! We took the puppy to the park and let her (and J) ramble around for ages while we got caught up. Came home, did some stuff, picked up kids and made lunch. D surprised me by phoning around 3 to say that he was coming home early and would walk over to the old city with the big two to (hopefully) take them to the Dome of the Rock. He had tried the previous Friday while I was with my friend, but there were too many stairs to manage well with the stroller. He took the boys, J had a late nap, I cooked - success on all fronts.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the boys went to school by themselves (D had been walking them). J and I hung out here and did some tidying and then went into town - well, we sort of live in town - to see about a sim card for my phone and a few other things. Did some errands, took J to the playground and enjoyed the sunshine! Home in time for lunch and a nap. I let the big boys have a dvd during naptime and after that a few friends came over to spend the late afternoon. Two of them live in Tel Aviv and were going, with the third, to a new exhibit at the Israel Museum. After dinner I took a bottle of wine and spent the evening with another friend who is here for the year with her husband and two boys. I haven't seen her since they moved back to the US (they're both American) nine years ago and spent a couple of days with us in Reading on their way over. Her husband is on a business trip in India and her boys were asleep so we pretty much drank our way through the last bunch of years and got caught up.
And that brings us up to date on what we've been doing here. Stay tuned for more :-)
I wrote about riding the tram our first full day here, which was a Thursday. The next morning - still cool and rainy - we took my aunt's care and drove up north to visit N and her family. N is someone I met when I was 21 and a student. She's a few years younger than me and we've always been more like sisters than friends. I haven't seen her since our last visit here in 2009, but seeing her always feels like coming home. I sort of put up with her husband (I'm actually the one who introduced them), but her boys are very sweet and aged 3 and 5.
Within 15 minutes of arriving, I was already at the stove cooking soup. There was a ton of food on the table Friday night, including an amazing fennel salad (note to self: ask N for the recipe). A friend of theirs was invited for dinner as well. They're still living in the same house as last time, but they've since changed the rooms around so that the five of us ended up sleeping upstairs in the room her oldest occupied when he was a baby. The room is huge, remeniscent of one of those "family rooms" some hotels offer: D and I shared a king-sized futon, B and M were on a full-sized mattress, J slept in a travel cot and there was still ample walking space.
N, D and I took all five kids for a walk the next morning (N's husband wasn't feeling well and spent most of the weekend in bed) as it had warmed up and had gotten quite sunny. D and I ended up arguing about something just before lunch (things were tense for a few days after that) and he had a nap with J while I hung out with N. We also managed some time alone after the kids were in bed Saturday night. D and I had planned for an early start Sunday morning as I didn't feel right about hanging on to my aunt's car for too long. D decided that instead of heading back to Jerusalem the way we came up, we should drive across to the Golan and down the other side of the Kinneret. Great, but that added over an hour to the trip. For some silly reason (because this usually doesn't happen) J fell asleep and remained asleep till we stopped for coffee just south of the Kinneret. We got snacks for the kids and continued south through the West Bank (along the border with Jordan) which turned into a whole history/geography lesson for B and M. Back to my aunt's where we had lunch and put J to bed for a nap. D went off into town to organize a phone for himself and B and M amused themselves with some games they found in the room they shared.
Monday was another warm day. My aunt suggested getting up early and taking B and M to their school despite the fact that we hadn't yet moved to the flat (driving in traffic versus a two minute walk after the move). This is an ulpan (language school) for children who don't speak Hebrew in order to help them catch up so they can go into a regular state school the following year. Most of the kids are immigrants, but they're obligated to take all children and the cost is the same no matter how long they attend. We took them and completed the registration process and were told that they would begin the next day. I was given a list of items they would need (notebooks, pencils, etc), which I took them to buy upon our return home. Was rather funny, as the shop owner went down the list to make sure she had given me everything only to say something like "I can't supply the sandwich; you'll have to make that yourself" :-P
D had gone to the university to start working that morning, so after J's nap I took the kids to play on the mifletzet (monster). This is a set of slides in a small park near to where my aunt lives. I don't think I've been since the age of 7, so was kind of nostalgic.
D was out that evening, as were my aunt and uncle (the older of their sons was graduating with an accounting degree that night), but another cousin's son stopped by to see me and the kids. Then my aunt and uncle returned, along with the graduating son and his wife and baby (someone was watching their two daughters at home, about an hour or so away).
My aunt and I took the boys to school the next morning (Tuesday). They weren't very nervous, and came home and told us about the other kids (many of them English speaking) and what they had learned (mostly handwriting). This business of having to drive them and pick them up was a pain, but it was only for a few more days and my aunt was happy to help, which was nice. My aunt offered to pick the kids up on her way home from wherever she was spending the morning, but another cousin (I should probably explain that my aunt had seven kids - well, there are six living), the mother of the one who stopped by the previous evening, came by to hang out for a bit and get some recipes from me as she is on a special diet and is really limited in what she can have. After J's nap we drove down to Efrat to visit another cousin, her husband and their five kids (the youngest is just weeks old). D didn't make it as he was still at work. My three had a lovely time playing with the other kids. And then another cousin came to hang out and catch up - was immensely fun. D and I finally had time to talk (make up properly) after she left :-)
The next day my aunt and I drove the kids to school, but I decided to stay in town and do some errands and make my way back to her house on the tram. I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what I did - so it probably wasn't terribly exciting - but it was pretty nice to finally walk around town and revisit a few places. Kind of sad to see with my own eyes that the bookstore I used to work really is shut (I've known about it for a while, but it's not the same to just read it on Facebook). I also priced cafetiers as we were really starting to miss drinking real coffee. J and I eventually made our way home, where my aunt was taking care of the baby of - yes! - another cousin. She's only just gone back to work after having her third child and she only works a few hours a week so the grandmothers are helping out until she goes back full time. The mother of that baby (along with her younger sister,who had been over the previous evening) arrived while my aunt was out collecting the boys from school and I was home with J and the baby. J was in bed by the time my aunt returned and I got lunch for B and M and generally hung out with my cousins till they had to leave. Also did some laundry and started packing up as we were moving into the flat the next morning (Thursday).
D took my aunt's car the following morning - drove the kids to school and got the keys to the flat. Then he came back and we loaded up and drove over. We managed to get all of it in one load. He returned the car and I started unpacking clothes and getting reacquainted with the place (we stayed in the flat for a week in 2009). J and I headed out to the market to get some food and run a few errands and D was here when we returned but left for work soon after. Very nice to finally have a place of our own again. My aunt is lovely and positively doted on us but it's nice to be able to eat what we want and do our own thing after a week of living with someone else.
The flat has two bedrooms (one medium, one huge), a living room, a kitchen and an adjacent tiny dining area. The toilet is separate from the shower room, which is very large but has no washing machine (still working on that). We were going to sleep in the smaller of the two bedrooms and put all three kids in the huge one, but changed our minds and decided to have J in the room with us. One of the chairs in our room unfolds into a bed of sorts - like a long mattress but with the back and sides of the chair around the top third - and J's been sleeping on that. No nap for J that day as getting out of the room was all too easy. Kids were very excited about being back in the flat and explored all over. More food shopping after the notnapping as I could have B and M help carry stuff in their backpacks, and finally a dinner along the lines of what we eat at home.
Friday D was home with us. We went back out to the market to get more food. Fruit, vegetables, olive oil, cheese - we didn't really get that much as it was mostly gone in days. Very tricky to buy food for an empty kitchen! Still, we had the makings for a few nice meals and I was pretty satisfied. Managed to get some fish for D and J for that night. Also bought some amazing halva (and I don't even like halva!) which was gone by Saturday night. Just to give y'all an idea of the array of flavors available....
Back home and then I went over to visit a friend at lunchtime. Spent the afternoon with her and her three daughters. A bit tricky, since she wanted full updates and her girls were bouncing all around us. She was going to spend the late afternoon/evening with a mutual friend, so she drove me home and hung out for a while. Her kids were all over my kids and we got to hang out some more - was fun. Dinner was late-ish due to J's very late nap. After that we put the older two in front of a dvd and took J for a walk.
Saturday morning we took all three to a nearby park. Huge playground, lots of sun. At one point I followed as J walked miles. When we finally returned to the playground, D said we'd been gone for ages. Home for lunch and J's nap, then a former housemate came over and spent the afternoon. I haven't seen him in 5 or 6 years, so was good to catch up. He stayed until it got dark and then J and I walked him back home. Another friend - someone I met when I was 20 - who lives in Tel Aviv was in town for the weekend. She and I went out for dinner and got all caught up. I didn't see her last time I was here either, so it had really also been 5 or 6 years for us.
Sunday morning D went to work. I left the big two at home and took J down to the market, then collected the big two and went to the park. Kids had a great time till J tripped and scraped his face on a path :-( Sunday was also my aunt's birthday and she was going to drop off some laundry after her French class. I had gotten her a big bunch of flowers and when she called from downstairs for me to send the kids down to get the laundry, they surprised her with the flowers. She was very touched and I was glad, because we'd wanted to get her something to thank her for helping us the first week and doing all of our laundry too. After J's nap we walked to the nearest public library - still quite a walk - only to find out that without an Israeli check to leave as a deposit, we can't take out any books. Found eggs in M's head that evening (probably got lice at N's) and ended up running out to get potion for me and the big two (I was starting to feel itchy by then). Not so fun, but all treated.
Monday the kids had school and J and I spent the morning with a close friend of mine from university. She's starting a new job next week so has this week off and she also has a new puppy! We took the puppy to the park and let her (and J) ramble around for ages while we got caught up. Came home, did some stuff, picked up kids and made lunch. D surprised me by phoning around 3 to say that he was coming home early and would walk over to the old city with the big two to (hopefully) take them to the Dome of the Rock. He had tried the previous Friday while I was with my friend, but there were too many stairs to manage well with the stroller. He took the boys, J had a late nap, I cooked - success on all fronts.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the boys went to school by themselves (D had been walking them). J and I hung out here and did some tidying and then went into town - well, we sort of live in town - to see about a sim card for my phone and a few other things. Did some errands, took J to the playground and enjoyed the sunshine! Home in time for lunch and a nap. I let the big boys have a dvd during naptime and after that a few friends came over to spend the late afternoon. Two of them live in Tel Aviv and were going, with the third, to a new exhibit at the Israel Museum. After dinner I took a bottle of wine and spent the evening with another friend who is here for the year with her husband and two boys. I haven't seen her since they moved back to the US (they're both American) nine years ago and spent a couple of days with us in Reading on their way over. Her husband is on a business trip in India and her boys were asleep so we pretty much drank our way through the last bunch of years and got caught up.
And that brings us up to date on what we've been doing here. Stay tuned for more :-)