Keeping It Israel

• A fitted bed sheet is the perfect “building skin” for a pillow fort. It hugs the chair corners like nothing else.
• Whenever we go to services, I look around (there is lots of sitting and standing) and I feel like a tall person.
• Produce is seasonal here. When fruits or vegetables are no longer in season, they disappear from the supermarket shelves. That’s wild.
• I wonder if Israelis would be more outwardly happy people if the Jewish holidays were spread out more evenly across the year. It’s hard to enjoy the one you’re in when you are thinking about and prepping for the next one.
• It is not uncommon to see naked children (up to about age five) at the beach. People seem to be less prudish about things like nudity and public urination here.
• The guys dressed like Super Mario (see picture below) outside shopping centers and larger campus buildings are handing out free newspapers. Israel HaYom is a hard-right paper published by Sheldon Adelson’s wife that is dogged in it’s support for Netanyahu. But hey, free newspaper right?
• Tackle the most important thing on your to-do list first thing in the morning. Who knows what the day will bring (see final observation below).
• When your wife puts her headphones on you can fart as much as you want.
• Street cats can sound like a crying child in the middle of the night.
• The stories about wild boars in Haifa are true. I’ve seen them around midnight. There is also a rugby team here with that name.
• Not everyone lives in an apartment building here. You will find familiar suburban development with single-family, detached houses outside the cities. Nobody has a lawn (water supply), but some people install AstroTurf.
• If the internet connection goes down for several hours, write multiple blog posts.

Last night a rocket hit a house in Be’er Sheva, which is the eighth largest city in the country with a population of about 200,000. That got me thinking about security.

When I take the bus to the Technion, it stops at the main gate and a guard gets on and walks to the back of the bus looking around. He (it’s never a woman) then exits through the back door and the bus goes on its way. Some days I miss the #31 and have to take the #28, which drops me off about fifteen minutes from the building. When walking in on foot, I show my campus ID card to the guard and continue my walk. Occasionally they ask to see what’s in your bag, but the ID card is key.

There are a lot of indoor malls where we live in Haifa. In Champaign, these places would be strip malls (horizontal), but here they tend to have two stories and a guard out front. I like the Mega in the City supermarket located in the basement of one of these indoor malls. There are two entrances, each with a guard. The guy at the front entrance takes his job very seriously and never fails to swipe me with his metal detector wand and look into my wheeled shopping cart.

The guy at the back entrance has never checked any of these things and seems to make a determination as you are approaching as to your threat level. The large SuperSol on HaNassi has its own guard at the front entrance who also never seems to stop anyone.

When we go to the children’s museum you pass through a metal detector and the guard asks if you are carrying ammunition. My guess is this is for new soldiers who may be required to carry their rifles with them everywhere. The other thing I noticed is that most school kids have cell phones. I see it when I pick Millie up in the afternoons and she has complained that not only do all the kids her age have phones, the younger kids do too. I’ve been told that the cellphones allow parents to know where their kids are and to check in with them as needed. As Adena noted, the kids here have more freedom and independence than their counterparts in the States. Part of that is due to how walkable things are, but it is also made possible by cellphone communication.

Since we have been here, I have not worried about being caught in a mass shooting. It’s funny to say I feel safer here than at home when rockets land on houses and there are sporadic stabbing attacks (mostly near Jerusalem), but here we are. I’m sure there have been mass shootings and maybe school shootings in the States since we left, but I haven’t heard about them. Maybe things are getting better there or maybe they haven’t and it just doesn’t make the news here.

It also raises the question of whether this is where the U.S. is heading with respect to securing public and private (looking at you SuperSol) spaces. Think of the jobs that could be created if we posted security guards at malls, museums, and schools and if cellphones were on the list of required back-to-school items for elementary school and up.

There are lots of cars here that you rarely see in the States. In addition to Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Kia, and Chevrolet, you see lots of vehicles made by Renault, Citroën, Škoda, Dacia, Peugeot, Fiat, Astra, Ibiza, and Suzuki. To my knowledge, there are no Israeli auto-makers and so passenger cars get imported from elsewhere.

I would most like to test drive the Fiat Panda because it looks and sounds fun. It also defies categorization. Is it a car or a van (see also the Škoda Roomster and the Mitsubishi Space Wagon)?

The Hyundai Getz is interesting because I have no idea where the model name came from. Most of the Hyundais here have straightforward names like i10, i20, or i30. In the states, Hyundais have names like Elantra or Sonata, so a short, harsh sounding name like Getz stands out. It is also not uncommon to see a Hyundai Getz with one of these window flags.

What counts as a large automobile is relative. In the States, a Toyota Corolla is considered a small car, but here Yaris == Corolla and Corolla == Camry. Land Cruiser still equals Land Cruiser, but those are more rare than full-sized pickup trucks.

Speaking of cars, lots of them have this bumper sticker, which is a Facebook group that went viral and now has thousands of “members” around the country. The name translates as “defective father” and is essentially a support group for dads or people who are about to become dads.

The significance of the bumper sticker is that it allows members (and anyone really) to leave chocolates, fruit, notes of encouragement and other things for strangers who are doing their best to meet the daily challenges of parenting. They also meet up in person to volunteer, take on renovation projects, and socialize. The idea is that parenting is hard and so we shouldn’t beat ourselves up so much and we should support one another. Sounds nice.

We have been in Jerusalem since last Sunday, staying with Adena’s parents at an apartment they are renting in the Baka neighborhood. The drive down from Haifa was uneventful, and we arrived in time to have breakfast at the Garden + Home Restaurant around the corner.

The food was good and we explored a new park not far away. Adena and I helped set up the sukkah at Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura’s house while the girls hung out with their grandparents at the apartment. Here are a few photos of me with Paul and his son-in-law Ziv.

Later that night, we all walked over from the apartment in Baka to Paul and Laura’s house for dinner and ate in their sukkah.

Adena’s friend Mindy (from college) and her family are also in Israel right now and they joined for dinner. It was a fun evening with a chance to talk and lots of tasty food. Later that evening, we walked back to the apartment with Mindy and her family (they were staying in a different neighborhood). As we passed by apartment buildings on the way, it was nice to hear people entertaining in their sukkot, which was a lot different than the experience in Champaign where we are always the only house on the block with a sukkah. Here are a few photos of sukkahs on balconies, in parking lots, and sloping ground.

On Monday morning, we walked to services, but arrived late. Stuart joked that he wished he could say that was the latest they had ever arrived for services, but… Adena and her dad had an opportunity to participate in the service and the punch served afterwards was yummy. We had lunch at Judy and Benjy Siegel’s house and ate in their sukkah. Two friends of Adena’s parents were also invited and the food was (again) delicious, including homemade, non-dairy ice cream!

On Tuesday, we had breakfast at the Waffle Bar down the street (Millie’s pancakes came with ice cream), then drove to the Stalactite Cave Nature Reserve west of Jerusalem. We met Mindy and her family and one of her friends there.

It was fun, but the drive there was a bit harrowing (windy roads).

There was a street fair on Tuesday evening and we met up with Adena’s cousin Noa (who lives in Jerusalem). The kids played with soap bubbles, there were local bands playing (one group of teenagers played “Zombie” by the Cranberries twice while we were there), and massive servings of cotton candy.

That night, Adena and I went with Mindy and her family to a comedy show near the Old City that was organized by and featured another of their college friends. Honestly, it took me a while to warm up, but it was pretty funny.

On Wednesday, we took the bus to the Israel Museum and met up with Adena’s friend Avi (the comedian). The museum is huge and the girls really took to the arts activity in the Youth Wing where they drew and painted full-length self-portraits.

Wednesday night was dinner at a “stekiya” or Israeli steakhouse near the Hadar Mall. Each person ordered a meaty entree (skewers of chicken, spicy sausages, etc.) and the staff brought out a variety of sides (beans, falafel, rice, beets, cole slaw, etc.) and refilled them as needed. It reminded me of “family style” barbecue restaurants in North Carolina.

On Thursday, we went to the aquarium, but I took the bus because there is only room for five people in the Kia Picanto. That part of the city is hard to get to, and the bus stop was actually about 25 minutes from the aquarium by foot. It was the hot part of the day, but I made it and would have been on time if the bus was not eight minutes late. This is the large goldfish pond out front where kids feed them pellets for a shekel.

On Friday, Adena and I went to Yad Vashem and the girls went to First Station with Stuart and Nancy. The Holocaust museum was overwhelming and we spent three hours walking through the main exhibit and grounds.

The Memorial to the Deportees consists of the train car shown above that sit on a track cantilevered into the open sky, which is really powerful. The Valley of the Communities lists the names of Jewish communities that were lost during the Holocaust on massive stone pillars like those shown above. We found the name of the town (Olszany) that Adena’s maternal family came from in Poland in the group of stones for places near Vilna/Vilnius.

Saturday night Adena and I took the bus down to the Shuk. We had heard a lot about it as a trendy spot for people to hang out at night, which is apparently a new development. I liked the art covering the doors of shops that were not open and took a bunch of photos.

We got drinks at Roaster’s and played backgammon while a steady stream of 90s hip-hop played in the background. I tried the Shapiro pale ale and it was really good. Definitely better than what is available in the supermarket here. From there, we stopped by Marzipan on Agripas for rugelach and walked over to Ben Yehuda Street. We browsed the shops and watched people dancing at a Chabad-sponsored party near the end of the pedestrian mall.

Adena had a solo breakfast with Mindy this morning and we had an uneventful drive back to Haifa. We walked down to the Simchat Torah service this evening (yes, the holidays are still going strong) and later listened to the band performing in the park near our apartment as part of the Haifa Film Festival. I’ll need a few days to fully recover from this week, but it seems like we are finally enjoying our time here on a consistent basis. Nancy and Stuart will be coming up to Haifa on Wednesday and spending a week with us, so stay tuned!

• Kids keep their pacifiers a lot longer in Israel. One of the parks in Haifa has a pacifier tree with an explanatory sign that (hopefully) makes it easier for kids to part with it.
• I love dates! They are like tiny candy bars that grow on trees. They also taste surprisingly good with onions.
• On Yom Kippur, there are practically no cars on the street. In Haifa, kids ride bikes and scooters in the main thoroughfares. People walk and stand in the middle of the street. Surreal and very cool.
• Running every few days suppresses your appetite and suppresses negative thoughts.
• Cars often drive onto the sidewalk when parking. Sometimes they park perpendicular to the curb if there is not enough space to parallel park. Somehow I don’t have a photo of this practice.
• You really only need one phrase to be a lifeguard at Haifa beaches: “yeled, bo leh po” (boy, come here). That’s all I ever hear them say.
• It is rare to see a full-sized pickup truck here. So rare that I started taking photos of them. I included a few at the bottom of this post.
• Sukkot is the favorite holiday of flies and mosquitoes. It’s more like “bite-eavon” (b’teavon)!
• Ulpan fee: $400. Ability to make the occasional pun in Hebrew: priceless.

This time of year in the Jewish calendar is one of reflection. The focus is on spiritual reflection but I find that I do more personal reflection. And as I walk the hills of Haifa I think a lot about being here: the ups and downs of the past 3 months and what the next 3 will hold.

Lately, before I get Aviva from gan, I take a few minutes to sit in this spot (which is basically across the way from her gan) and appreciate the view of the water, the boats, the sky that always seems to be blue and the fact that we are here.  I know that I have shared the hard times we have had but I am glad we are in Israel. And even though we are only half way through our adventure, I already feel a tightness inside knowing that we will be leaving and I will no longer get to sit in this spot or walk the streets that were once so foreign but are now familiar and comfortable. I want to make the most of the next 3 months – and internalize as much as I can so that when I am back in Champaign I can close my eyes and be transported back to Haifa, even for a moment.

A little catch up

School for Millie and Aviva seems to be going well. Aviva is adjusting better to gan and she is doing some great activities. Her teachers are very kind and they tell us she is starting to say some things in Hebrew. Last Friday she was the Shabbat Queen (“She’s your shabbat queen to be…..” – comment if you get that reference!), and she has been learning about Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. She is also very excited for her gan sukkah that they are decorating. Here are some photos from her gan (we get pictures nearly everyday of the kids, via the WhatsApp group).

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Millie likes her school and I think she enjoys all of the different subjects and activities. She is in the after school program, which for now she is either on a computer or running around outside. But starting October they have specific activities that the kids signed up for. There was a big fair at school last Friday for signing up, and it was quite the event with music, snacks, face painting. Millie chose fencing and learning about life in the sea as her two activities.  She also had a beautiful Rosh Hashana celebration.

Speaking of Rosh Hashana, we spent the first day with my relatives in a neighborhood called Kirkur, about 45 minutes  from Haifa. It was great. I met a few cousins for the first time, got to talk to Michal (who is my mom’s first cousin) about her mom who came to Israel in 1934.

Now, it is just about time for Yom Kippur, (the day of atonement). It is quiet. Tomorrow, we have been told, that because there will be virtually no cars on the road, that kids play/people walk in the street (there is no school and most things are closed). I will walk to a synagogue about 35 minutes away, but I think I will still stick to the sidewalks.

It has been almost three weeks since my last long-form post and so much has happened in the meantime. The girls started school this past Sunday and here’s the obligatory first day photo.

Millie’s school is about fifteen minutes away once you get on the bus and things seem to be going well so far. It is a uniform school and each student has to wear a shirt with the school logo each day, which is kind of awesome (like Hogwarts).

There is a small petting zoo near the main guard station and the school itself has an amazing view of the Mediterranean Sea. School starts at eight and dismisses at two and right now, Millie is going to an afterschool program onsite until four or five. The language barrier means she can’t do all the school exercises and we are considering pulling her out of the afterschool program if we can find someone to teach her Hebrew and math/piano during that time.

Aviva has been going to gan (daycare) and is having separation issues after being out of the daycare environment for a full three months, doing things like this each day.

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The teacher (Liora, in the pink shirt) seems to really know what she is doing and relies heavily on music and singing. She avoids speaking to Aviva in English in hopes that it will speed her language acquisition. Hila, who owns the gan, sends her own son there and her husband is often onsite making repairs and improvements. Here are a few photos of Aviva in action at gan without tears (making honeycake, eating honeycake, tumbling).

She seems to cry less when I drop her off in the morning than when Adena does it. We’ll try that for a bit.

I am also happy to report that I finished the five and a half week language immersion course today. I learned a lot, but it still doesn’t feel like quite enough. That’s Ruti in the center.

My plan is to continue using DuoLingo and Rosetta Stone and there is a “support group” for new immigrants at the synagogue we have adopted that meets Friday mornings. I can practice speaking Hebrew there. It takes about half an hour to walk there and we’ve been twice. On the way back last time I noticed flyers like the one shown below on the street bulletin boards.

Apparently the rabbi there (in the middle) is the same person who was arrested several weeks ago for performing weddings that riled the religious powers that be. I found him to be extraordinarily welcoming and personable. He also doles out an insane amount of candy during the service. Sometimes adults get candy too.

We bought a membership at the Madatech science museum and Aviva and I went down there on Monday afternoon. It was great because we essentially had the place to ourselves. Note the lack of people in the photos below.

We also successfully applied for a visa extension on Tuesday and are now allowed to stay in the country until the end of January. Here is a picture of the passport photos we sat for and bought, but did not need in the end.

The clerk was unexpectedly nice and efficient. The extension only cost us 680 shekels (total) and if we want to leave the country and come back, we just need to get a stamp at the Ministry (and pay them another 680 shekels) a day or two before we head out.

We have started watching a few YouTube videos with the girls before bed. The Swedish Chef from the Muppets is in heavy rotation, as well as Schoolhouse Rock. I am excited to begin writing full time next week, after the Rosh Hashanah holiday (campus is basically closed with reduced bus service on Sunday and none on Monday and Tuesday).

About two weeks ago we drove to Jerusalem to visit with baby Amalia, shown here with her grandmother and her two admirers.

She is Kayli and Ziv’s first child and the first grandchild of Uncle Paul and Aunt Laura. It was so nice to be back there and to see everyone. For us, Jerusalem is open and engaging in a way that Haifa is not. At least not yet.

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.