Author: adenatova

Thought I would get in on the “things I learned post.” Here are few observations:

• Pharmacists are super nice
• The use of emojis here is outstanding. You see them in emails, texts, Facebook Posts, Ads, you name it.
• Pomegranates grow everywhere and they are beautiful on the tree.
• Did I mention emojis? Seriously, every text has at least one.
• There is an ice cream flavor called Lotus at the nearby ice cream shop and it is the best. Kind of like caramel with graham crackers — sort of. But it is sooooo good. And it claims to be non-dairy.
• This time of year everyone wishes you a shana tova (happy new year), including the guy who comes by to install something for the apartment.
• Being able to walk to a grocery store (or three) is a simple pleasure (and luxury?) and I take advantage of the opportunity most days.
• I love bourekas. I knew this already but now I can eat them all. the. time.
• You need to take out a loan to buy all of the books, supplies, and clothes kids need for school.

In Israel, everything slows down on Friday as the country prepares for shabbat. Our street, which usually has a decent flow of cars and beeping (and now the occasional bus or two due to some road construction on a sort of parallel street), is very quiet.

I appreciate the ability to feel the different pace that shabbat brings each week. And it was a good week, on balance. Millie had another stellar week of camp. Aviva was busy making puppets and playing at parks and reading the “BarbaAbba” and Baby Yoga books. We even got some mail!

Today, we had a lazy morning, went food shopping, Bev got “the best haircut experience ever” (his words) and then I started work. Bev took the girls to the beach and there was no drama – no car issues, no trouble finding a shady spot – just fun in the sand.

We are planning to check out the conservative synagogue tomorrow (there is only 1 in Haifa). Now it is time to relax.

Amidst the drama, have I mentioned how happy we are with what both kids are doing this summer? (I may have, but I am going to say it again!) Millie is finishing her third week at the Haifa Zoo day camp. She has loved it from day one. Most mornings they start with feeding an animal (one day it is honey badgers, the next it might be baboons, and the next it could be camels – like in the picture below). There is swimming or crafts or games, and each day they take care of their “personal animal”. Today they had a field trip to the Eretz Yisrael museum in Tel Aviv. Everyday parents get a message from the counselors (via the WhatsApp group) about what they did, including photos. She will have two more weeks of day camp as the summer winds down.

We have been extremely fortunate to have found a wonderful babysitter for Aviva. She is a medical student at the Technion, from Long Island, and is just more than we could have hoped for. She and Aviva will spend hours at a park; or they will have a beach adventure; or play hide-and-seek in the apartment. Today they went to a craft store to get supplies to make puppets (which is what they are working on in the photo).

But why take my word for it?

The days are long and full, but the kids are alright.

The last post was a bit of a downer, with Bev explaining many of the difficulties we have encountered so far. Today might have put us over the edge. And yes, the trouble revolves around having a car. Again. This time, as we were on the way to the science museum we got hit by another car—not serious, no one was hurt and the car damage was relatively minimal (the driver’s side mirror was hit and the plastic on the back came off).

While both we and the offending driver pulled over (as best we could, we were kind of in an intersection and let’s face it, there is nowhere to pull over 90% of the time on any street in Israel)—he then proceeded to drive away. We did get a photo of his license plate.

So now, I will make my way to the police station Sunday morning (by bus with Aviva in tow) to file a report and try to get information about the person driving the car so I can give that to the rental car company. And I expect the fun will only continue from there.

Not how I wanted to start Shabbat. But really, if it is not one thing, it is another. Living in Israel temporarily is nothing like being a tourist in Israel, or being a student in Israel. And for sure it is nothing like being an Israeli—not having a citizenship number puts you at a great disadvantage when trying to do many day-to-day things. And while there have been kind individuals (strangers even) who have helped or tried to help (like the receptionist at the bank yesterday), it just feels like we are quite alone in a sea of red tape and reckless drivers.

We had an okay time at the Madatech (national museum of science, technology, and space) and interestingly, this facility is where the Technion was originally located before it moved to the east of the city center in 1985.

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It is hard to not think about going home. Even putting that in writing is hard. But we are all feeling it. I do have hope that once the school year starts in September, it will be better. But that is a month away.

 

I love Israel. I have been waiting a long time to be back and I am so happy to be here and have this amazing opportunity to be here for an extended period of time. Still, there are times when Israel tests that love (and I am not getting political here). It is the rental car company that insists that the car we are renting from them does not exist (what?!); it is the car that zooms by us on the left when their lane is ending but honks as if we are in the wrong; it is the person honking rudely in the parking lot wanting our space but we are not leaving…. yes there is a vehicle theme here. And yet, what we have noticed is that for every day that is full of frustration, the next one is completely the opposite. I have to remind myself that it is crazy to think that moving to a new city will not have its challenges.

So on the plus side, Millie is really loving her new day camp, at the Haifa zoo, which is a 10 -15 minute walk from out apartment. (I love being able to walk to almost everything, even despite the hills!) She gets to care for the animals each morning, has an adopted hamster to care for (which she named Parsley – Melanie D., that one is for you!), and has a special activity each day. We have never seen her so excited about camp before.

And we have so far been happy with our “nanny” for Aviva. She is kind and responsible, and comes ready with games that she brings from home. Our current challenge is finding a good gan (daycare/preschool) for Aviva. We visited one on Friday and just want to visit another one for a comparison (that’s Aviva in the pink. below).

Bev is settling in with a work routine at the Technion and will be starting ulpan (language immersion) for 3.5 hours per day next week.

I do miss Jerusalem. I miss my relatives, the non-humidity (it is crazy-humid here), Tachana Rishona (First Station), passing by the view of the Old City every day, the falafel shop in my aunt and uncle’s neighborhood. But I like Haifa and look forward to getting to know it better each week.

Chicago has been described as “the city that works” due to its historical role as an industrial center in the States. In Israel, it has been said that “Jerusalem prays, Tel Aviv plays, and Haifa works”. We’re planning to spend the final two weeks of our trip in Tel Aviv, completing the trifecta.

Located along the northern coast, Haifa still has a working port that is visible from the steep slopes of Mt. Carmel. We got up early on Sunday, packed the two cars (because a Kia Picanto can barely fit one suitcase in its trunk), and said goodbye to Jerusalem (for now). The drive north was uneventful and took about two hours. The Hyundai i10 we rented had more pep and better gas mileage than the Picanto.

We had a leisurely breakfast at the Lehem Erez cafe on Moriya Boulevard. The food was good and a female patron who was smoking outside offered to put out her cigarette after the kids complained about the smell. She’ll thank them in twenty years.

We got the keys to our apartment, Bev moved the suitcases up three flights of stairs, then we rushed across town to return the second rental car. It was not a fun experience. It was unclear how to actually get into the Budget facility and Bev had to hunt for a full service gas station after a debacle at the Delek station: we had to return the rental car with a full tank and you need a Teudat Zehut in order to buy gas. Deep breaths. At the Budget return facility we had to show pictures of the dent in the rental car door (with timestamp) to avoid paying for damage, then sprinted to the municipal parking office downtown. The streets are so windy and the steepness makes it a little unclear where downtown is, but all that really mattered was the clerk was surprisingly nice and helpful.

We had lunch at this great restaurant nearby, but only after walking down an incredible number of stairs toward the water.

Here’s a picture of us trying to walk back up with full bellies. San Francisco has nothing on Haifa in terms of hills and steps. It is very humid here and it doesn’t take long to get drenched with sweat. For example, it is 84 degrees with 69% humidity, so it feels like 92 degrees right now.

The apartment is great, with plenty of room if you want to visit over the next couple of months. There is a mid-sized supermarket and post office a few minutes down the street. There are several parks nearby and just over the hill is the city center with the auditorium, restaurants, and shops. The Louis Promenade is a fifteen minute walk and the Baha’i Gardens are a twenty minute walk. The Haifa Zoo is maybe seven minutes away and Millie will be doing a trial week of their summer camp starting this Sunday.

On Monday, Bev took the bus to the Technion and picked up the key to an office vacated by a faculty member who is currently abroad. He located the library, figured out WiFi, and found a kumkum for making Turkish coffee. The person who handles visas, parking, and library access is out of town this week, so more patience is required. We also interviewed two nanny candidates and made an appointment to visit a preschool near the apartment for Aviva on Friday morning. Apparently, sign up for ganim happened about two months ago and most things are full ☹️.

Being in Haifa is working out, but true to the saying, everything has been a lot of work.

In Israel, the work week begins on Sunday. Most things close by two or three on Friday for Shabbat, so life follows a very different rhythm here than it does back home. Millie started day camp Sunday morning, which meant the four of us taking two buses across town to make the 7:45 am kickoff (and we made it!).

She is in a mixed group of second graders where some of the kids speak Hebrew and some speak English. The dropoff went smoothly, then the remaining three of us boarded another bus to pick up the rental car we had reserved. Just to let you know, it worked out in the end, but the Kia Picanto in the picture below was hard-won.

The “rental association” we used to make the reservation presents itself as specifically catering to English speakers (it is called iAnglo), but they do not seem to have a brick-and-mortar location. The ordeal began when we walked into the Lease4U storefront, and the gentleman behind the desk informed us that he only spoke “ktzat” or “a little” English. Over two hours later we were rolling.

Adena has been particularly stressed about driving in Jerusalem. Cousin Kayli’s husband Ziv told us to block out all of the noise and just drive. So far that advice has worked. Now if we could just break the habit of using our turn signals everything would be “beseder”.

Adena was able to meet up with some old friends at a cafe on her day off.

At three it was time to pick Millie up from day camp. She had a good first day and at the urging of one of the parents, we picked up anti-lice conditioner for the girls on the way home. We learned later that she misplaced her swim goggles on Day 1 and her t-shirt on Day 2. There is a large park across street with three or four playground areas, which is great because camp ends at three but Adena works until six. One of them has this spherical climbing structure that we have seen at many of the playgrounds here.

The shades stretched above the playground really help with the sun and the bird droppings.

We finally made it to the Old City! The day began by taking two buses to meet our tour guide at the Mamila Mall. From the moment we met her, she engaged both Millie and Aviva and knew exactly how to keep things moving so a 7 and a 3 year old barely knew that they were walking around in the heat for four hours (well, Aviva was mostly in her stroller). She took us through the Jaffa Gate, walked through the Jewish Quarter, stopped for falafel and pizza (Aviva is not ready to try falafel yet), visited the Kotel (Western/Wailing Wall), and then walked through the City of David — which included a great 3-D movie!

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As part of the City of David tour, we went all the way down to the tunnels. There is a wet tunnel, where there is water flowing and you walk in water that can be waist high….we did not do that one! But we did go through the dry tunnel and it was great. Both girls loved it, even though at first it was a bit scary for them.

In the afternoon, after a short rest, we ventured out again to meet Noa and her daughters and the kids played for two hours at a neighborhood playground.

By the time we got home again, it was a full day and everyone collapsed!

As shabbat approaches we will have been here for just about one week. I think we are over the jet lag and slowly learning our way around our immediate neighborhood (and how to navigate the bus system–thank you Google Maps!). Today we ventured out to Ben Yehuda Street (a pedestrian mall with lots of shops and places to eat).

By the way, if anyone needs a MAGA kippah, let us know.

We needed a bathroom and ended up having a snack at the (kosher) McDonald’s but didn’t even have a burger.

Then wandered a bit until it was of course, ice cream time again! This falafel shop literally had a line out the door…

We are expecting a hot day tomorrow (~95 F) so except for having lunch with family friends, Judy and Benjy Segal, we will lay low.

Shabbat shalom!