My Home in Israel

One of the youngest bloggers out there has some great quotes on aliyah…..

And I guess you’ve all come to expect my trenchant commentary on the events of the day, so I’m going to bring your attention to the just-released statistics that immigration to Israel is down 9 percent this year! As the baby of immigrants, this concerns me. Do you fat, lazy Galut shtetl Jews think just because astoundingly cute sabras like me are born here every day, you can keep guiltlessly packing on pounds in your 4 bed, 3 and a half bath palaces in Exile? I’m spitting up right now. A spit-up of contempt. Israel is a special place. Make aliyah! Can your American baby telepathically blog, or does he just sit there like a lumpy sack of potatoes with regular bowel movements? I think you know.

Remember it didn’t come from me, but from a one week old *wink*.

me: For your trip you are going to Neot Kidumim
BG: What is that?
me: A place where you see all sorts of nature things from the TaNaCh.
BG: Like what?
me: Trees and other things described in the Bible.
BG (very excitedly): Like the “Etz haDaat?”

This is a test of a blog post done by instant messaging…I doubt that it will work

See that fat date tree, I think it is going to have dates soon.

(no, I don’t think it works the same way as fat (ie pregnant) women having babies)

to discuss appropriate behavior by children. If you have school age (or pre-school age) children, please weigh in on this discussion….

Yesterday a friend of my big girl came over to visit. She was here from about 4:30 - 6:30 and I served dinner. The meal consisted of left over soup from shabbat (tomato-vegetable), veggie schnitzel (choice of corn or spinach) and brussel sprouts. (Hey, my kids like them.)

Anyway, the big girl’s friend…lets call her Grumpy (she is about 5 1/2), says I don’t want soup.

me: Fine, which kind of schnitzel do you want?
Grumpy: Can I have cornflakes and milk?
me: No, we don’t have cornflakes here for dinner…what I serve is what you can have
Grumpy: do you have yogurt?
me: No, this is not a restaurant. You can have anything I’ve served. Would you like some bread with butter?
Grumpy: I want humus
me: fine…here is some bread with humus.
(child proceeds to maul bread with fork, while my children have finished their soup and started on their schnitzels)
Grumpy: I’ll have that schnitzel (corn).
Grumpy: Why does it have corn in it?
me: because it is corn schnitzel.
Grumpy: I don’t like it, and I don’t like the soup….let me see what you have in the fridge….

Ok..so I don’t need to give any more details, you get the idea. (oh, and she also wanted mitz (Israeli bug juice) but we only drink water here.)

I’m very conflicted about the situation. Firstly, I don’t think she behaved appropriately, and secondly, if I let her have her way, then I would have been teaching my children a message I really don’t want them to learn. Also, why do Israeli children think it is acceptable to go into someone else’s refrigerator? (This is the second time that one has happened to me.)

Seeing as we have already been in our new apartment for over a month, and one blogger has already commented on my lack of blogging, it is time for part one of the move.

Lets go back a few days prior…..

Against the spouse’s better judgment, I called a cleaning company to make everything “tip top” (their words). They basically pushed water around the apartment, and when they tried to get the water out, they tried to use the drainage pipes from the porch. Unfortunately, these were clogged. Not only did they jam (and break) a wooden mop pole in the pipe, they caused water to run into the apartment below ours. Luckily for us it didn’t kill the TV that the water poured into, but it did leave water damage to their ceiling and wall. (I’m going to get our builder to fix it.) They also (supposedly) did extermination, but after one month we already have ants in the bathroom. Other notes about the cleaners: they didn’t clean light fixtures, they didn’t clean the ceiling fan, or the walls (which were dusty) and they don’t clean “furniture” so the didn’t touch the built-in wooden bookshelves.

By the end of the day I was exhausted, and I still had to work on packing.

A note about the mover: I will say their name, because we were very satisfied with them. Gimmel Gimmel Movers were great. The week before the move they dropped off a large amount of boxes. Apparently they have a connection with a hi-tech company, and they get all their second hand boxes. After the move we were able to help four other people move with the boxes they had given us.

Next up: The day of the move.